Minute 127: Standing By for Any Reports

GUEST: FR. DAVID MOWRY The radio blackout continues through Odyssey’s reentry.  The crew experiences rising G-forces, as Apollo 13 leaves a blazing trail across the pre-dawn sky. On patrol, two Navy helicopters fly low over the Pacific. In the Lovell household, Marilyn Lovell is seated behind her son, Jeffrey. Daughter Susan sits next to Marilyn, and daughter Barbara sits nearby. Jules Bergman narrates the scene on the USS Iwo Jima. “Back to the Iwo Jima and our live cameras there. The Navy recovery and rescue helicopters already airborne, circling, waiting for first radar contact,” says Bergman. Barbara begins to cry, and moves next to her mother. Outside the Lovell home, crowds of reporters fill the street, with broadcast trucks parked everywhere. “Coming up now on three minutes until time of drogue (chutes) deployment,” says a NASA PAO. “Standing by for any reports of acquisition.” Two news men stand atop a broadcast truck, listening to a portable radio. “One minute and thirty seconds to end of blackout,” says an announcement in Mission Control. All the controllers wait and stare at the large monitor. In Wisconsin, Jay Lovell continues to watch the news coverage in his school classroom. “No re-entering ship has ever taken longer than three minutes to-,” begins Walter Cronkite. IN THIS MINUTE: Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert Bill Paxton as Fred Haise Gary Sinese as Ken Mattingly Ed Harris as Gene Kranz Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell Miko Hughes as Jeffrey Lovell Rance Howard as Priest Emily Ann Lloyd as Susan Lovell Mary Kate Schelhardt as Barbara Lovell Max Elliott Slade as Jay Lovell Jules Bergman as Himself Walter Cronkite as Himself