Nixon Presents Medal of Freedom to Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team (1970)

Duration: 12:33

Year Published: 1970

Sound: sound

Description: In this news segment for Houston’s KPRC-TV, President Richard Nixon awards the Medal of Freedom to the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team: Glynn Lunney, Gene Kranz, Gerry Griffin, Milt Winder, and Sigurd Sjoberg. The ceremony took place at Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center on April 18, 1970. An estimated 2,500 people were in attendance. First Lady Pat Nixon, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, MSC Director Robert L. Gilruth, and family members of Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise joined the President on stage for the presentation. Following the awards ceremony, Nixon and the astronauts’ families flew on to Hawaii to meet up with the Apollo 13 flight crew. Launched on April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 was meant to be the third mission to land on the Moon. Fifty-five hours and 55 minutes into flight, however, an oxygen tank exploded in the Service Module, depleting the crew’s oxygen supply and causing multiple fuel cells to fail. NASA soon aborted the original mission, and the safe return and landing of the crew became the primary objective. Lovell, Swigert, and Haise splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 17.