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  Ed Smylie, Apollo crew systems chief (1929-2025)

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Author Topic:   Ed Smylie, Apollo crew systems chief (1929-2025)
Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-27-2025 12:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
collectSPACE
NASA engineer Ed Smylie, who led carbon dioxide fix on Apollo 13, dies at 95

It was about one in the morning, four hours after an explosion tore through the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its way to the moon, when Ed Smylie realized they had to do something about the carbon dioxide. What happened next is now storied space history, involving how to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Smylie, who was chief of NASA's crew systems division at the time, died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 95. His death came almost 55 years to the day after he and his team figured out how to combine a spacesuit hose, a sock, a plastic bag, cue cards and duct tape to clean the air for astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert during their emergency trip back to Earth.

dom
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David C
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MartinAir
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SpaceCadet1983
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mode1charlie
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posted 04-27-2025 04:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mode1charlie   Click Here to Email mode1charlie     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you, R.I.P., and ad astra, Mr. Smylie.

Jeff
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Hangar Cat
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RIP

cddfspace
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MCroft04
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tedc
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Kevin T. Randall
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apolloprojeckt
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Michael Davis
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ejectr
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Axman
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posted 04-28-2025 10:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Axman   Click Here to Email Axman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
He has a page in history, which is more than can be said of most of us 7 billion earthlings.

bthumble
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davidcwagner
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David Carey
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rjb1elec
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posted 04-28-2025 03:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rjb1elec   Click Here to Email rjb1elec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A true Steely-eyed missile man.

SpaceAholic
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posted 04-28-2025 03:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
...after he and his team figured out how to combine a spacesuit hose, a sock, a plastic bag, cue cards and duct tape to clean the air
Was not tracking a sock was used to fabricate the work around. How was it incorporated into the endstate solution?

GT76
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Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-28-2025 05:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
Was not tracking a sock...
There was a ventilation hole at the center of the command module scrubber that needed to be plugged. Joe Kerwin told Jack Swigert:
The next step is to stop up the bypass hole, which is the hole in the center of the bottom of the canister; we want to stop that up because we don't want to bypass the flow; and I forgot to tell you to get something to stick in that hole. We recommend that you either use a wet wipe, or cut off a piece of sock and stuff it in there, or you could probably even crumble up some tape and use that. Over.
For the first "mail box," Swigert used a piece of a towel that was nearby, but the written instructions prepared by Smylie and later crew-prepared scrubbers used crew socks.

Delta7
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SkyMan1958
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gareth89
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Philip
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