AMES, Iowa - Astronaut Fred Haise, a member of the ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 space mission who was severely burned while filming "Tora! Tora! Tora!," will speak at Iowa State University on Saturday, Sept. 19. His presentation, "Failure is not an Option," will be at 7 p.m. in Stephens Auditorium in the Iowa State Center. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, is a highlight of Engineers' Week 2009.
Haise was lunar module pilot for the Apollo 13 moon flight, his only flight into space. Haise and mission commander James A. Lovell, Jr., were to have separated the lunar landing module Aquarius from the command module Odyssey, piloted by astronaut Jack Swigert, and land on the moon. However, 55 hours into the mission, an oxygen tank in the service module behind the command capsule exploded. Quick thinking by the crew enabled them to power down the capsule and power up the lunar module, turning the latter into a cold but functional lifeboat. After 86 hours and one quick swing by the moon, the astronauts were able to power up the capsule systems and make a safe return to Earth.
In 1973, Haise survived another harrowing ordeal. He was burned over 65 percent of his body following an aircraft crash while filming the Pearl Harbor epic, "Tora! Tora! Tora!."
With the cancellation of Apollo flights 18 through 20 due to congressional budget cuts, Haise lost any opportunity to return to the moon. Instead, he become one of the first astronauts to pilot the space shuttle in test missions. In 1978, Haise commanded the third orbital flight of the shuttle on a rescue mission to Skylab, but the ailing space station re-entered the atmosphere and burned before the much-delayed shuttle flight could be made.
Haise holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He is a former flight instructor at the U.S. Navy's advanced training command, a U.S. Marine Corps and Oklahoma Air National Guard fighter pilot, a NASA research and civilian pilot and a U.S. Air Force pilot. Haise was selected to be an astronaut in 1966, and inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997.
During his presentation, Haise will use NASA footage of Apollo 13. Immediately following the lecture, he will sign autographs in the Celebrity Café.
The lecture is cosponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Engineers Week and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body.
Additional information is available online through the Lectures Program (http://www.lectures.iastate.edu/).
