Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise signs a young fan’s “flight suit.”
Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise is 88 years old in 2022. The last chapter of his memoir, Never Panic Early, makes a reference to being in a rocking chair when he hit conventional retirement age. But as you can see from reading the book, Haise remains an active member of the space community; similar to many other astronauts, rather than retiring he pivoted his career to service.
Haise today serves as a board member of the Infinity Science Center, which in Pearlington, Mississippi is just an hour away from his boytime town of Biloxi. As he recounts in his memoir, Infinity has several benefits to the community. It’s visible to Interstate 10 and the eight million cars that drive through there every year. It includes a space gallery that talks about NASA and its Stennis Space Center’s contributions to certifying rocket engines.
But more than anything else, Haise said, what really got him interested in the project was the chance to educate visitors, and more especially children, on the benefits of spaceflight. He talked to Forbes about how growth is one of the things that has come to him in unexpected ways, but ways that he has enjoyed.
The occasion of Haise’s interview was the recent publication of his memoir, written with Bill Moore and available now from Penguin Random House. This is the last of five lessons that he learned from his career. The fourth lesson, how ideas are not plans, is available at this link.
NASA astronaut Fred Haise remains active far beyond traditional retirement age.
Haise told Forbes that what he is most proud of in the museum is the science gallery, which tells the story of Mississippi with a special focus on space science. “We cover hurricanes, we cover wetlands, we cover pollution [and how] that’s actually just downright messed up variety of things.”
A walkway joins the museum to the Pearl River so that visitors can move from learning about the science to seeing it for real, and as much as possible the museum uses interactive exhibits to engage with children who have grown up with the Internet, iPads and other technology.
“I call it stealth learning, because the children can do their play around on it,” he said of the museum, citing a wave machine with vibrations as an example as the kids bounce up and down on it while learning about how waves work.
Forbes also asked Haise about the learning he assimilated from his Apollo 13 crewmates that he carried into other careers, using space as a platform to grow and to help others as the astronaut approaches his tenth decade of life.
The Apollo 13 flight crew, from left: Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise. Swigert replaced Ken … [+]
Famously, Apollo 13 had a last-minute crew swap (just days before launch) after command module pilot Ken Mattingly was exposed to the German measles. Backup Jack Swigert slotted into the crew quite well, Haise recalled, as he was “steeped in that vehicle” from the time that it was designed. Swigert spent a lot of time working closely with manufacturer North American Aviation to get assembly line vehicles ready for flight, Haise added.
“He was a very outgoing person, personality wise. The bachelor. We always kidded him about how many girlfriends he had,” Haise recalled (as Haise and Lovell were both married with children at the time of Apollo 13.) Haise also recalled Swigert always wearing white socks, even with a tuxedo.
Mattingly, Haise said, “was just the opposite personality. More introverted, extremely studious detail.” And Jim Lovell, the mission commander, was quite outgoing with a good sense of humor.
Haise said that Lovell’s personality was ideal for the mission, which famously had a large failure nearby the moon that affected the crew’s safety, requiring several days to get home under difficult conditions. “Obviously, there was a lot of concern and a lot of pressure,” Haise said. “Other commanders — I won’t mention their names — would have been a lot harder on Mission Control.”
The only time Haise recalled Lovell losing his temper was towards the end of the mission, simply because it was taking NASA some time to send a modified power-up procedure to Swigert and Haise for the stricken command module, mostly taken offline after a rupture in its service tank. The power-up was required to get the command module ready to bring the astronauts through the last leg of the mission, through the atmosphere to a splashdown.
NASA astronaut Fred Haise in training for a moonwalk that he never got to take.
To Haise’s credit, he said that part of the issue just lay with the fact that the Apollo 13 astronauts were unfamiliar with the unusual startup procedure (part of which had to be modified on the ground during the flight). They were essentially learning it on the fly, along with Mission Control. But Lovell came around quickly, he recalled, and to this day he speaks warmly of the contributions the commander made to Apollo 13.
Lovell and Haise were supposed to walk on the moon during Apollo 13, but due to the accident, they never made it to the surface. Haise wrote in the book that in the moment, hearing that his landing would be called off in a stricken spacecraft, he felt all that time serving as backup to Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, and training for Apollo 13 as a prime member, went to waste.
But we can also argue the opposite; all those years as a pilot, a military personnel and an astronaut helped Haise grapple with the unexpected and contribute to the successful journey home, which saw the crew splash down with only minor health problems despite all the challenges they encountered.
As this story is being written, NASA may be flying another Apollo 13 team member’s name in space very soon. Arturo Campos was one of the key people who made sure the command module’s electrical system could bring the astronauts home safely, because of the damage. His name now graces a mannequin that was just loaded onto the Artemis 1 moonbound spacecraft as the mission targets a launch at the end of August.
That mannequin is just one of the ways by which the vast team that got Apollo 13 home safely will continue to resonate in the annals of space history. To learn more about the mission, consult NASA’s history archive about Apollo 13.
