The Response Winter 2020-2021 - 4

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

What do we
have that's good?

'll make you a promise, this sentence will be the only time you will read the word
COVID in this article. We certainly have endured a lot this year due to that word.
Instead, let's take some time and focus on the power of optimism and adaption ...with a
little help from NASA...and Tom Hanks.
Fifty years ago, the United States embarked on its fifth mission to the moon. Astronauts Jim
Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert were jettisoned out of our atmosphere and into space
on what many believed, after the successes of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, was simply a routine
assignment. That was when disaster struck the spacecraft. The mission was Apollo 13.

T.J. Huckleberry
Executive Officer
Berks County
Medical Society

Of course, we all heard of Apollo 13 or saw its self-titled motion picture or perhaps read
Commander Lovell's book Moon Shot. It is also a safe bet that we all used its famous tag
line, especially this year, " Houston, we have a problem. " For years, that line has become a
catchphrase for when things are not going well. So much so that we simply take that quote
for granted.
Think about it, when Commander Lovell stated those famous five words, an unexplained
explosion just crippled their spacecraft, trapping them in a powerless space capsule... that
was also slowly running out of oxygen... and they were four days away from earth. Speaking
for myself, I would have had a more colorful and less calm report back to mission control.
Yet Commander Lovell's voice was steady, focused, and unafraid.
Why?
Because he had options; he still had materials and working components that with a little
imagination and creativity, could get them home. Moreover, he had mission control and the
thousands of brilliant men and woman whose sole focus was now to get them safely back to
earth. Most importantly he had faith and hope. Faith in his crew and the faceless engineers
at NASA and hope that their plan would literally save their lives.
For Commander Lovell this was not a crisis. It was a problem and problems have solutions.
Jim Lovell is not the only Apollo 13 figure to draw some inspiration from. Upon learning
about the explosion, the entire mission control room was thrown into complete chaos.
Shouting and panic was all that could be heard. Finally, Mission Control Director
Gene Kranz calmed everybody down; he told everyone to " work the problem " and
then he simply asked, " What do we have on the spacecraft that's good? "

THE RESPONSE // WINTER 2020-2021

The Response Winter 2020-2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Response Winter 2020-2021