Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95

Ed Smylie, the NASA official who led a workforce of engineers that cobbled collectively an equipment product of cardboard, plastic baggage and duct tape that saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 after an explosion crippled the spacecraft because it sped towards the moon, died on April 21 in Crossville, Tenn. He was 95.

His loss of life, in a hospice facility, was confirmed by his son, Steven.

The day after the astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise returned to earth on April 17, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon awarded NASA’s mission operations workforce with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks, he singled out Mr. Smylie and his deputy, James V. Correale.

“They’re males whose names merely signify the entire workforce,” President Nixon mentioned at a ceremony on the Manned Spacecraft Middle in Houston. “And so they had a jerry-built operation which labored, and had that not occurred, these males wouldn’t have gotten again.”

Comfortable-spoken, with an accent that exposed his Mississippi upbringing, Mr. Smylie was stress-free at dwelling in Houston on the night of April 13 when Mr. Lovell radioed mission management along with his well-known (and regularly misquoted) line: “Uh, Houston, we’ve had an issue.”

An oxygen tank had exploded, crippling the spacecraft’s command module.

Mr. Smylie, who lived 5 homes down from Mr. Haise, noticed the information on tv and known as the crew techniques workplace, in accordance with the 1994 ebook “Misplaced Moon” by Mr. Lovell and the journalist Jeffrey Kluger. The desk operator mentioned the astronauts had been retreating to the lunar tour module, which was speculated to shuttle two crew members to the moon.

“I’m coming in,” Mr. Smylie mentioned.

Mr. Smylie knew there was an issue with this plan: The lunar module was geared up to securely deal with air stream for less than two astronauts. Three people would generate deadly ranges of carbon dioxide.