APOLLO 13th ORIGINAL CREW COIN BEFORE MATTINGLY WAS EXPOSED TO GERMAN MEASLES AL For Sale

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APOLLO 13th ORIGINAL CREW COIN BEFORE MATTINGLY WAS EXPOSED TO GERMAN MEASLES AL:
$5.13

APOLLO 13th ORIGINAL CREW COIN BEFORE MATTINGLY WAS EXPOSED TO GERMAN MEASLES AND NASA SWAPPED CREW 2-DAYS PRIOR TO LAUNCH

Great condition 1.5" Aluminum COIN medallion ORIGINAL MINTED IN early 1970

55 Years Ago: Apollo 13 and German Measles
Or how a 3-year-old boy changed NASA’s plans for Apollo 13

The last few days before launch Apollo crews typically finished up any last minute training and also found time to get a little rest before the big day. Not so much with Apollo 13, scheduled to lift off on April 11, 1970. As the prime crew of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Thomas K. “Ken” Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Fred W. Haise and backups John W. Young, John L. “Jack” Swigert, and Charles M. Duke finished training, one astronaut’s illness exposed the rest to an infectious disease resulting in an unprecedented change of crewmembers two days before launch.   Three weeks before the planned April 11 liftoff, backup LMP Duke and his family spent time with friends whose 3-year-old son came down with German measles, also known as rubella, the following week. Because Duke didn’t have German measles as a kid, he lacked immunity against the rubella virus and came down with the disease. Duke had trained together and attended meetings with the other five crewmembers up until Friday April 3, while he was still contagious. During the crewmembers’ L-5 day physical exams on Monday April 6, the flight surgeon collected blood samples and analyzed them to see if any of the astronauts had antibodies against rubella although none except Duke exhibited any symptoms. The test results came back two days later with good news for Lovell and Haise, who had immunity probably from childhood exposures, but Mattingly did not. Young and Swigert on the backup crew were also immune. Dr. Charles A. Berry, Director of Medical Research and Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, was concerned that if Mattingly were to come down with German measles, given the virus’ incubation period it would likely be around the time they were in lunar orbit, possibly while he was alone in the CM. Symptoms such as fever, rash and headache could interfere with his ability to perform intricate maneuvers to rendezvous with Lovell and Haise in the LM as they returned from the Moon.   Apollo program managers now faced a dilemma. No one wanted a sick astronaut during a critical phase of the mission. One option was to delay the flight by 28 days to the next launch window in May 1970 that allowed a landing at the same Fra Mauro site with the same lighting conditions, but that was a costly proposition. Flying the entire backup crew was not an option since Duke would still be symptomatic at launch time. The only solution that made sense was to ground Mattingly and fly Swigert in his place. The backup crew typically trains to be ready to fly the mission until about one month before launch, when the prime crew has almost exclusive access to the spacecraft simulators. While managers considered Swigert fully trained, he might have been a little rusty, so he began an intensive last-minute refresher training program on CM systems. Fortunately, over the past few years, Swigert had developed the CM malfunction procedures, so he knew that spacecraft’s systems probably better than any other astronaut. His proficiency satisfied managers that he could operate the spacecraft with no issues. Another concern raised was that Swigert hadn’t trained directly with Lovell and Haise and would the three form a cohesive crew. During several simulator runs, the three proved they could precisely execute intricate maneuvers as a team. Chief of Flight Operations Donald K. “Deke” Slayton agreed that Swigert was a proficient and well-integrated member of the crew and that the safest course of action was to ground Mattingly and fly Swigert in his place. 

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