edgar-mitchell

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In the aftermath of the Apollo 13 mission, the machinery at NASA was
activated to identify the cause of the explosion, and correct it. Apollo 14
had to be a flawless mission; the American public wouldn’t tolerate anymore
mishaps. We had already been to the moon. From here on out we had to
make it look easy if NASA was to continue to garner funds from Congress.
While the task of correcting the cause of the explosion was undertaken,
Al, Stu, and I continued preparations for the flight that loomed just
nine months away. Fra Mauro, the rugged region of the moon where Apollo
13 had originally planned to land, now became the scheduled landing site
of Apollo 14. Intellectually we tried to distance ourselves from the similarities
between our mission and theirs, but there was no dismissing the harsh
realities of space exploration. What stood most prominently in our minds
was the task of reorienting our preparation for the firsts that Apollo 13 had
been scheduled to accomplish. Each flight used the experience of previous
missions and then extended the envelope of knowledge just a little
further. Ours would be the first lunar landing mission to focus on science
rather than establishing the techniques of space travel. However, we were
scheduled to demonstrate a direct ascent to the command module upon
leaving the surface of the moon, rather than the slower circling procedure.
Instead of “chasing” the command module for one lunar orbit, the
lunar module (LM) could feasibly fly straight toward it in one fell upward
swoop. This, of course, would be done in the interests of saving precious
time, which eventually translated into a smaller load of fuel and other
consumables.
Al’s project was especially daunting. The task of learning two new spacecraft
from the ground up, along with our specific mission operations, within
a period of 18 months, was awesome, but he was both a capable student
and commander.
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