HOUSTON, WE’VE HAD A PROBLEM:  Ed Smylie, a hero of the Apollo 13 mission, died three weeks ago at the age of 95.  He headed the team of engineers that came up with a way to save the lives of astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise.  The news has only made it into the major media in the last day or two.

Here’s what happened (in case you don’t remember the event and didn’t see the 1995 movie):  An oxygen tank exploded, forcing the astronauts to retreat from the command module to the lunar module.  But air in the lunar module was designed to handle only two men, not three.  NASA estimated that, after two days, the build-up of carbon dioxide would render the air poisonous.  Something had to be done fast.

Both the lunar and the command modules were equipped with canisters of lithium hydroxide to cleanse the air of excess carbon dioxide.  If the astronauts could just use the canisters from the command module to supplement the lunar module’s canisters the problem would be solved.  But … not so fast.  The canisters in the two modules were different from each other.   “You can’t put a square peg in a round hole, and that’s what we had,” said Smylie.   Before the canisters could be used, the engineers had to design an adaptor out of the materials available onboard.   They were able to do so, using cardboard, plastic bags, a hose from a space suit, and duct tape.   Duct tape!!!  (As Smylie later put it, “If you’re a Southern boy, if it moves and it’s not supposed to, you use duct tape.”)

Mission accomplished.  The astronauts returned safely to Earth.  God bless Ed Smylie and his engineers.