It is difficult to establish who is the real protagonist of the Apollo 13 adventure. It is natural to think about the crew, who risked their lives, but certainly they knew that what they were doing wasn't exactly a walk in park, or even a flight in a jet fighter. It is also human to think about the families of the crew, who had to endure all those events with the aggravation of a passive role, without any chance to provide any help or support.

Then, after Lovell's book and the subsequent rendition as a successful movie (thanks to the genius of Ron Howard), people learned that those obscure people behind the scenes (or the consoles, if you prefer) of Mission Control played a gigantic role, and even appeared to be the masterminds of the lunar exploration program. And after Lovell, other players in that arena started writing down their memories, from Gene Krantz, to Chris Kraft and then other controllers. The geeky flight controller as the real main character? Perhaps.

The movie itself gave viewers also a hint that behind Mission Control itself there was yet another world of people, that outperformed themselves in those frantic days. People that were able to make a difference because of years of learning, and training, and passion and, as Micheal Collins once said, "blood, sweat and tears". Those people are usually unnamed, and we like finding traces of their existence in memos, documents, and other papers we collect over time. Those people, actually those engineers, deserve more than an honorable mention. They were, as a team, the sum of the entire Apollo experience and they always outperformed themselves in the years that led to the first exploration of the Moon.

Those engineers were hidden in their back-rooms or they laboratories. They were unnamed or unknown to the rest of the world (some special privileges were granted to back-roomers like Jack Garman, during Eagle descent on the Moon). Until now.

A precious find

In a simple memo titled "Special Activities Worthy of Recognition Performed by Engineering and Development Personnel During the Apollo 13 Flight", Max Faget, one of the brains (if not "the" brain) behind all American spacecrafts, shed light on the names of all those engineers that distinguished themselves during the Apollo 13 crisis. He does so by describing also the different activities, studies, evaluations performed in those frantic days of the crisis. The terse language, while matter-of-fact and un-emotional, belies that all those activities unfolded during a few days, where every single minute counted for the safety of the crew.

Faget's memo would be of interest only because of the role of the author, but we are sure he wouldn't be disappointed if we shift the emphasis about it on its content. The detailed content provides a trace not only to the names of those heroes, but also a way to better understand which were the issues that the experts had to confront with during the mission. Strangely enough the copy of the memo has no date or identification on its cover page (it is however dated 1st of May 1970 after the signature). It could be a draft that has been circulated for approval. Also we never found any mention of it in other archives so, until proven otherwise, we consider it also a rare find.

Our readers might find a scanned copy of the original document in our downloads section. The original has been found in astronaut Jack Swigert's Collection at the Research Library of the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, in Denver. Just a few stapled pages brought to you as a high-quality scan to increase the awareness of those engineers that, unsung, made a difference.

It is interesting to note that in the very first page Faget provide a short account of the mission. The name Jim Lovell has been underlined with a pen. We like to think that perhaps Swigert himself might have underlined it to highlight the small mistake in the account: the first communication about the problem was given by Swigert, and confirmed by Lovell 15 seconds later. This small misunderstanding appears also in the official mission transcript. It is very interesting to note that the transcript scanned copy available on the web here, carries on page 167 a note about the fact that the first transmission was Swigert's (thus CMP instead of CDR) and not Lovell's. Give it a look.

We provide it not only in occasion of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 13, but also in the hope that some of our readers can find any of those engineers and ask them about their experiences. We will be delighted to get in touch with them and host their memories.

And to Those Engineers: thanks.