“After Apollo 12’s mission in November 1969, with the decade coming to an end and Kennedy’s dream believed to be fulfilled, Americans were fast losing interest in the space program. Amazingly, they would rather watch the TV show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In than a live broadcast from outer space,” said Armstrong.
“I never understood how that level of disinterest could be possible with such an amazing human endeavor,” commented Lucas.
“Well, today it’s even worse. What do you think people would rather watch tonight, a live broadcast from the surface of Mars by one of the rovers there right now, or Desperate Housewives?”
“Touché. It’s embarrassing… it’s gotten worse.”
“Anyway, that apathy from the American public was what motivated the Apollo 13 successful-failure type mission,” said Armstrong. “The heads behind the secondary protocol were 99.9% certain that the next mission would be able to finally land on the Moon. And they believed such an accomplishment deserved a big audience. So, to rekindle public interest in the Moon missions, they came up with a plan for a dramatic preamble. A story that would set up the truly historic event.
“Enter Apollo 13’s Odyssey. Just like the setup man in baseball who comes to pitch in the eighth inning with the mission to keep the opposition in check and set the stage for the closer in the ninth. It was pretty clever really. After all, why not take advantage of the number 13. Use its bad luck reputation to put some excitement back in the space program. Especially when, by happenstance, the lunar module assigned to that mission was number 7; lucky number 7 for unlucky number 13! A fortuitous circumstance that, in their view, was not to be wasted.
“It was the simulation of all simulations. The astronauts’ secondary protocol mission called for them to activate an alternate telemetry feed to mission control which would show the catastrophic events that are now in the history books. Everybody at mission control thought they were dealing with a real situation, and the astronauts played their parts brilliantly.
“The plan banked on the media to mount a huge show around the potential catastrophe, and they didn’t disappoint. They hyped it all the way up in their endless pursuit of higher ratings. The whole world got wrapped up in the event.”
The Reds setup man gets the job done
The Indians started the eighth inning with a hard hit to deep left field by pinch hitter Ryan Garko who tried unsuccessfully to stretch it into a double for the first out. This was followed by a fly out to right and a ground out to third and the Reds’ setup man Jared Burton got out of the inning with his mission accomplished.
“What about the names of the command and lunar modules? I have a theory about them,” said Lucas.
“Oh yes, those. Jim Lovell chose the name Odyssey because he liked the word and its definition: a long voyage with many changes of fortune. Coincidence? Of course not. That was Jim’s way of telling the world as much of the truth as he could get away with. And the name Aquarius for the LEM… Well, that came about because of a generalized peeve within the astronaut core. The lyrics of the song Aquarius tell us that ‘The Moon is in the seventh house’. Alan Shepard was one of the original seven astronauts. Deke Slayton wanted a Mercury 7 astronaut to make the first Moon landing.
“Landing on the Moon had always been in the house of the Seven. Does this conform with your theory?”
“It’s compatible,” said Lucas, “I missed the house of seven reference though.”
“The Apollo 13 mission was intentionally structured to be the official media preamble for the real first landing of man on the Moon,” said Armstrong. “And it was so obvious that to this day I can’t believe people didn’t see right through the deception. I mean, they named the command module Odyssey and kept the number 13 instead of just skipping it like they do in buildings.
“The media craved stories that boosted their ratings and NASA gave them a hell of a good one. Whereas unbeknownst to them, the mission was a huge success! Apollo 13 recaptured the imagination of the American people and brought their attention back to the space program. So, after such an emotional roller coaster, everyone was once again glued to their TV sets when the time came for the Apollo 14 historic voyage.
“In the meantime, there was some house cleaning to take care of. What happened had to be investigated and I was assigned to serve on the investigation panel. As part of it, and being aware of the secondary protocol, I opposed the investigation report’s recommendation to re-design the service module’s oxygen tanks, which were the source of the explosion. I knew it had all been a simulation and couldn’t just sit there and watch them spend unnecessary tax dollars on such a pointless endeavor.
The bottom of the eighth
The Reds made the Indians pitchers work in their half of the inning with a couple of walks, but they also came out empty. After 8 innings the Reds still lead 6-4.
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