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The Apollo 13 Command Module, that became so famous after Ron Howard's Apollo 13 hit the big screen, sits with its interior restored in a plexiglas shelter at the Cosmosphere. It is set at just about the right angle to view the capsule, giving visual access to the forward tunnel as well as the heat shield. My question is, what happened to the hatch that was displayed with the capsule during restoration?
Read about the towing bill.
See previous locations.
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Images by: Jim Gerard
Date: August 12, 2002 |
Mission information available from NASA |
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Older Images
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The Apollo 13 Command Module in restoration at the Cosmosphere. |
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Images by: Jordan Mogerman
Date: c. 1997? |
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Images by: Musée de l'Air
Date: c. 1983 |
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Date: c. 1984 |
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The Bill
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A short time (after recovery) North American Rockwell, designers and manufacturers of the Apollo command and service modules, received an invoice from Grumman Aerospace Corporation, designers and manufacturers of the lunar module. Now, since being respectively handed the top and bottom/second prizes in space manufacturing contracts, something of a rivalry had arisen between the two. It was clear that Grumman's LEM had saved Apollo 13's day, and the joke invoice detailed $312,421.24 of charges to Rockwell for services rendered towing their crippled command and service modules back to Earth:
Original bill at right, reproduction below
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| ITEM |
QTY |
Unit |
Description |
Account no. |
Unit Price |
| 1. |
400,001 |
MI |
Towing, $4.00 first mile, $1.00 each additional mile
Trouble call, fast service |
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$400,004.00 |
| 2. |
1 |
??? |
Battery Charge (road call + $.05 ???)
customer's jumper cables |
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4.05 |
| 3. |
50# |
# |
oxygen at $10.00/lb |
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500.00 |
| 4. |
1 |
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sleeping accommodations for 2, no TV, air-conditioned,
with radio, modified American plan, with view |
NAS-9-1100 |
prepaid |
| 5. |
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Additional guest in room at $8.00/night (1) Check out no
later than noon Fri. 4/17/70, accommodations not guaranteed beyond that time |
32.00 |
| 6. |
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Water |
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no charge |
| 7. |
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Personalized "trip-tik", including all transfers,
baggage handling, and gratuities |
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no charge |
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sub-total |
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$400,540.05 |
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20% commercial discount + 2% cash discount (net 30 days) |
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(-) 88,118.81 |
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total |
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$312,421.24 |
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No taxes applicable (government contract) |
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Pretty darn funny. Apparently Sam Greenberg, the Grumman employee who made others aware the invoice existed (it was made up by people working at Grumman's Flight Control Integration Lab) was fired for doing so. For about two hours. Then Lou Evans, president of Grumman, reinstated him, signed the invoice and it was sent out. Rockwell responded the same day in a press conference, where a spokesman deadpanned that Grumman, before issuing such an invoice, should remember that Rockwell had still not received payment for shipping four of their LEMs out to the moon.
Reprinted from: everything2.com
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| Location History:
The Odyssey was first displayed at Kennedy Space Center's Spaceport USA along with the Apollo spacecraft from the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Asked by the Smithsonian to give up one of the two for display elsewhere, it was decided to keep the 'successful' ASTP and give up the 'failure' Apollo 13. Odyssey was then moved to the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in LeBourget, France. The interior was removed and subsequently placed in BP-1102A and displayed in Louisville, Kentucky at the Museum of Natural History and Science. The main hatch was displayed at the Cosmosphere. Capsule, boilerplate and hatch were all brought together to undergo a restoration by SpaceWorks in Hutchinson, Kansas. It was performed in view of the public in the Cosmosphere. The boilerplate will then be fitted with an interior mock-up and returned. Sorry, France, you get nothing.
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Previous Locations
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- Spaceport USA, Kennedy Space Center, FL
- Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, LeBourget, France May 1983 -
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Last Updated on: Thursday, September 13, 2007
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A Field Guide to American Spacecraft
by Jim Gerard
www.americanspacecraft.com
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