Okay, people! Listen up! I want you all to forget the flight plan. From this moment on, we are improvising a new mission. [Kranz turns on an overheard projector and the bulb burns out] How do we get our people home? [drawing with chalk on blackboard] They are here. We turn them around? Straight back? Direct abort?
Yes! Gene...
No, we can't do that...
No, sir. No, sir! We get them on a free–return trajectory. It's the option with the fewest question marks for safety.
I agree with Jerry. We use the moon's gravity to slingshot them around.
No! The L.E.M. will not support three guys for that amount of time!
It barely holds two.
I mean, we have got to do a direct abort. We do an about-face, we bring the guys right home, right now.
Get them back soon, absolutely.
We don't even know if the Odyssey's engine's even working, and if there's been serious damage to this spacecraft...
They blow up and they die.
That is not the argument! We are talking about time, not–!
Oh, come on! I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you!
Let's hold it. Let's hold it down. Let's hold it down, people. The only engine we've got with enough power for a direct abort is the S.P.S. on the service module. From what Lovell has told us, it could have been damaged in an explosion, so let's consider that engine dead. We light that thing up; it could blow the whole works. It's just too risky. We're not gonna take that chance. Now the only thing the command module is good for is re-entry, so that leaves us with the L.E.M., which means free–return trajectory. Once we get the guys around the moon, we'll fire up the L.E.M. engine, make a long burn, pick up some speed, get them back as soon as we can.
Gene, I'm wondering what the Grumman guys think about this.
We can't make any guarantees. We designed the L.E.M. to land on the moon, not fire the engine out there for course correction.
Well, unfortunately we're not landing on the moon, are we? I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. So let's get to work, let's lay it out, okay?
