Gene Kranz and Jim Lovell, two of the heros of the Apollo 13 mission, gave an awesome presentation at the Monday General Session of SolidWorks World 2011. They took turns to talking in depth about their experiences with that potential disaster and the failures that led to it. Much of their experience was well documented in the movie Apollo 13, but hearing them talk about it first hand is 100 times better.
The press conference that followed the General Session gave the press an opportunity to ask questions of Lovell and Kranz. When asked about how they view risk in the U.S. space program, Kranz talked about Apollo 13 at first, but then mentioned the Columbia space shuttle disaster. He stated that practically the whole project management was fired. He then added that their firing was a mistake. In regard to the NASA team, he added,
Where do you learn if you aren’t allowed to make mistakes.
When asked about human exploration of Mars, Lovell discussed the loss of resolve to continue the U.S. space program.
We lost that incentive to continue a viable program.
He also stated,
We’ll eventually go to Mars, but it won’t be [Americans].
There are other questions for which they gave facinating answers. All cover more of the press conference later today.
