THE near-disaster and heroism of the Apollo 13 mission was honoured in an anniversary at Cape Canaveral at the end of January, and one Wilmcote resident was over the moon to be in attendance.

Norman Lee, 80, attended the belated 50th anniversary of the successful splashdown of the Apollo 13 spacecraft, held at the Radisson hotel on Cape Canaveral on Saturday, 29th January.

He accompanied his friend Richard Guckenburger, who had worked for Northrop Grumman, the aerospace technology company responsible for building the lunar module that became a ‘lifeboat’ for the Apollo 13 astronauts.

Famously the subject of Ron Howard’s 1995 film featuring Tom Hanks, the Apollo 13 mission to the moon was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded on the main spacecraft. NASA then worked to return the three astronauts safely to earth, and their splashdown in the South Pacific sea on 17th April 1970 was watched on TV by an estimated 40 million Americans.

The anniversary event saw former NASA employees and guests fill the Radisson hotel, attending a dinner in the presence of one of the three astronauts, pilot Fred Haise.

“It was an absolutely brilliant experience,” said Norman. “I was the only Brit out of the 250 people there, and many of them had worked for NASA as groundcrew management, talking the men down to Earth. Everybody I spoke to said how brave the men were, and the team managed to help these guys get back on a bit of a prayer. The power and technology they used is less than what we’ve got in our mobile phones.

“Richard worked on the project for the landing craft, but when they had the explosion and lost the majority of their oxygen, they had to actually come back on the landing craft – it was as critical as that. They had to make it back on the power of something like a single bar heater.”

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As well as talking with those on the ground for that fateful mission, Norman spent time with astronaut Fred Haise.

“He was a really great guy, very down to earth.” said Norman. “I think he played it down, especially when you think that he was the one that was going to land on the moon. Then when they were returning home there was no heating in the capsule for two days, it started to freeze up and they were knocking ice off the dials. There was a risk everything would get shorted out and that would have been catastrophic.

“It’s a very keen interest of mine, and I’ve been to Cape Canaveral before.

“When Jim Lovell had to cancel, I was hoping that Tom Hanks was going to make the dinner,” he joked. “I normally get told off for bringing rubbish weather to Florida, so I’ve tried to bring back some sunshine this time.”