Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise will be giving a presentation in Sparta, where he will share his unique perspective on the flight that unfortunately never made it to the moon. The event, titled Sharing Space with Deke, will take place on Saturday, September 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Deke Slayton Memorial Space & Bicycle Museum in Sparta.
Despite not being physically present, Haise will be appearing remotely through Zoom to provide insights into the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Tickets for the presentation can be purchased for $10 on the museum’s website, dekeslaytonmuseum.org. This event serves as a fundraiser for the museum and can be attended either in-person or through Zoom.
Haise, along with Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert, was part of the third crew selected to land on the moon following the successful Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions. However, in April 1970, their mission had to be aborted due to an explosion in the oxygen tank. As a result, the lunar landing had to be scrapped, and the world anxiously awaited the safe return of the three astronauts.
The significance of this presentation is further heightened by the fact that the crew was assigned by Deke Slayton, a Sparta native who was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. Slayton, unfortunately, was unable to fly a Mercury mission due to being diagnosed with a heart condition. Nevertheless, he went on to become NASA’s director of flight operations and played a crucial role in assigning flight crews for all six Apollo moon missions.
