A Look Back at Apollo 14The San Diego Air & Space Museum is celebrating 50th Anniversary of Apollo 14, the third mission to successfully put American astronauts on the Moon, with two special video reunions featuring Flight Director Gerry Griffin and Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, one of the CAPCOMS on Apollo 14. The reunions will air on the Museum's YouTube channel beginning on Feb. 12.
On Jan. 31, 1971, Commander Alan Shepard, America's first man in space during the Mercury program in 1961, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell, launched from Cape Kennedy atop a massive Saturn V rocket on their nine day mission to the Moon. It was NASA's first mission after the nearly-tragic explosion and fire on Apollo 13, which ultimately resulted in several improvements to the Command Service Module on Apollo 14 and subsequent Apollo flights.
By the time of the launch of Apollo 14, NASA had an all-star team in Mission Control. Griffin was a veteran Flight Director of several previous Apollo flights and was surrounded by several Flight Directors who also had taken part in multiple Apollo missions.
Haise also had extensive experience in the Apollo program, having flown to the Moon on Apollo 13 and having served on the back up crews for Apollos 8, 9 and 11. He volunteered to be a CAPCOM on Apollo 14 because of his extensive knowledge of the mission parameters after training for them on Apollo 13.
During the video reunions, Griffin and Haise will share never-before-told stories and anecdotes about Apollo 14 specifically and about the Apollo program overall general, in what is sure to be the experience of a lifetime.
The first part of the reunion will air on Friday, Feb. 12 beginning at 4 p.m. Pacific Time.
posted 02-03-2021 04:14 PM
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