On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13's fuel tank exploded, causing pressure in two of its three fuel cells to plummet. The astronauts were three-quarters of the way to the Moon and moving away from Earth at 2,000 miles per hour. The only practical way to get back was to circle the Moon and depend on gravity to launch them back like a slingshot, but that required more of their current supply of oxygen and electricity than they had. Their chances of dying were greater than their chances of surviving, yet all three astronauts returned safely to Earth. How did this happen? This occurred thanks to the experienced leadership and foresight of Gene Kranz, the flight director, and Jim Lovell, the ship's commander. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayGene Kranz was the mastermind and stabilizing force behind the bailout. Without Gene Kranz, all three men would have died in space and the story would have ended very differently. Gene Kranz immediately calmed all his men when he heard the devastating news, demonstrating excellent leadership qualities. He then tells everyone to call the support team and fix the problem instead of guessing, because he understood that accuracy is extremely important. His far-sighted mind allowed him to make the right decisions and the first major decision he made to save the men was to close the reaction valves for fuel cells 1 and 3 and move the astronauts onto the limb. Then, he immediately made a backup of all the computer's control data and moved it all to the limb before the command module died. After successfully moving the men there, he focused on the second part of his mission: getting the people home using as little energy as possible. His second major decision was to use a free return trajectory (the safest solution). Some of his men objected, saying it was designed to do more, but Kranz countered by arguing that it didn't matter what it was designed to do; what mattered was what you intended to do. This showed Kranz's penchant for precision; he always tried to be on the safe side in urgent situations and tried to be as precise as possible in making decisions. He also instructed his people to turn down the power to 12 amps (which means turning off the heat, computers, etc.) to give them enough time to reach Earth. To create enough options, Kranz ordered his men to create “re-entry scenarios” while preaching to them that “failure was not an option.” This demonstrated his confidence and determination to get the job done; by telling his men that failure was not allowed, Kranz forced them to think of a solution no matter what. After several hours of exhausting planning and experimentation, they finally thought of a solution and the men were saved. Jim Lovell, the ship's commander, also played an important role in saving the lives of his fellow astronauts. He showed the same foresight as Kranz when he decided to leave Mattingly behind and replace him with Swigert to keep the crew safe. Mattingly never contracted measles, but if he had, Lovell and his crew would still have been safe. Lovell also tried to keep everyone calm during the tribulation: when Haise begins to blame Swigert's inexperience for the accident and the two begin to argue, Lovell chokes. 1995.