With those words, one of the most famous adventures in the history of space exploration began, the safe return of the crippled Apollo 13 mission.
We have made many improvements to out rescue capabilities since that fateful trip, but there are still limitations which are holding our progress back.
"Right now our astronauts are dependent on the Russian Soyuz vehicles for emergency use," says John Muratore, project manager for the X-38 -Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) project at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "But the Soyuz vehicle only holds three people."
This limits the size of the permanent crew aboard the International Space Station to only three people at any one time. Only when the Space Shuttle is there to provide additional emergency transportation if needed, can there be a larger contingent. NASA's X-38 CRV is an emergency rescue vehicle in development, which will provide emergency transportation for up to seven crew members.
"The X-38 is a prototype of the CRV that will be the first-ever space vehicle specifically designed for space rescue," says Muratore. "It's a low-cost, high-tech answer to a strong need. NASA wanted to design an escape vehicle that would work under the most difficult circumstances."
A solution was needed that would not require a skilled operator in case no pilot was available. Using a "red-button approach," where all systems are fully automated, evacuees will just get in and push the start button of the X-38. On-board automatic systems will handle everything to ensure a safe return of the astronauts to Earth.
This new emergency rescue vehicle (X-38 CRV ) is more than just a lifeboat. It will include a fully equipped emergency medical facility, where ambulance-style first aid can be administered. The X-38 is off-the-shelf technology but not old technology. The flight computer is commercial equipment already in use in aircraft, and the flight software operating system is a commercial system already in use in many aviation applications. Like other parts of the X-38 emergency rescue vehicle, these technologies have never before been applied to a human spacecraft.
Other systems, such as the video equipment being used on the atmospheric test vehicles, the electro-mechanical actuators and the special coating on the X-38 thermal tiles are some of the existing equipment and systems which have a NASA history.
Featuring many of the aspects of a lifting body, the X-38 uses a very large parafoil once it is back in the Earth's atmosphere to control descent, speed, and direction Unlike the parachute it looks like, the parafoil is actually a deployable wing that you can actually fly instead of just fall. You can steer with winches and control the speed and direction of descent. At approximately 46 meters (150 feet) long, 15 meters (50 feet) wide, and 2 meters (7 feet) tall, the parafoil NASA has developed for the X-38 is the largest in the world. Its landing gear consists of skids rather than wheels. Although these skids look a lot like skis, on landing, they fold up under the vehicle and act like shock absorbers.
Although the X-38 could eventually be redesigned for other uses such as a crew transport vehicle, the current design is strictly for use as a crew return vehicle. The X-38 currently is stocked with just enough life support supplies to last about nine hours flying free of the space station in orbit.
Once the X-38 project is completed, each craft will be able to stay on the Space Station for about 3 years before it's brought back to Earth for servicing. The vehicles are in a testing phase right now. This fall, the first X-38 will fly a trial run from space after being released from the back of the Space Shuttle. By 2006 or 2007 the whole Crew Return Vehicle system should be in place and ready for use on the International Space Station.