The Science Museum and the Apollo Missions

And I'm back, catching up on some posts that have been floating around for quite some time here. I attended one of the Science Museums Late Nights, which is an adult-only evening they host once a month (last month's is where we got our biohazard suits). This was back in August, and the theme was Space! Yay!

One of the cool things that went on that night was a talk with Sy Liebergot, who was the Apollo EECOM (Environmental and Electrical Communications or something like that) during all of the Apollo missions, including Apollo 13. It was wicked cool to hear him talk about the missions.

He started out by talking about Apollo 11 and all that, then moved on to Apollo 13.
He highlighted this photo, saying that it was taken about 5 minutes or so before the explosion that started all the crazy. Apparently up until that time, the mission had been quite routine, and Gene Kranz, the flight director, had said something along the lines of "We are bored down here". Hah - bet he never said that again.
Here's a copy of one of the newspaper headlines after the explosion.
And here's Sy Liebergot on the right and the director or curator on the left - not sure, but he's someone important in the museum. The book that Sy Liebergot wrote (and I bought!) is in the middle. The book is pretty awesome - it includes a CD with all of the original audio from the Apollo 13 missions - you can hear all the recordings from mission control. He's also got a website here.
Here is a reproduction of the control panal in one of the Apollo spacecraft. Very old school.
And, if you're wondering, this is the guy (Clint Howard), that portrayed Sy Liebergot in the movie. Not really look-alikes, but at least you have an idea who he is.

I haven't worked all the way through the book yet, but so far it's been a really good read!