It was about one within the morning, 4 hours after an explosion tore by means of the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its strategy to the moon, when Ed Smylie realized they needed to do one thing in regards to the carbon dioxide. What occurred subsequent is now storied space history, involving easy methods to match a sq. peg right into a spherical gap.
Smylie, who was chief of NASA’s crew programs division on the time, died on April 21, 2025, on the age of 95. His death came almost 55 years to the day after he and his group found out easy methods to mix a spacesuit hose, a sock, a plastic bag, cue playing cards and duct tape to scrub the air for astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert throughout their emergency journey again to Earth.
“I assume that was our quarter-hour of fame,” stated Smylie in a 1999 interview with a NASA historian. “For those who learn the e-book and take a look at the film [“Apollo 13″], it feels like I did all of that. I went again and seemed on the listing of those who I recognized have been concerned, and there was most likely 60 folks concerned in a method or one other.”
The priority was that the carbon dioxide being exhaled by the astronauts would attain excessive sufficient concentrations to be lethal if not cleaned from the air.
Associated: Apollo 13: Information about NASA’s near-disaster moon mission
The Apollo spacecraft had two areas the place the crew lived, and every was constructed by totally different contractors. Contained in the command module, the carbon dioxide scrubber (or lithium hydroxide canister, because it was technically recognized) was cube-shaped. Within the lunar module, which on Apollo 13 served because the crew’s lifeboat, the scrubber was cylindrical.
Initially, Smylie thought that the answer might be so simple as persevering with to run the scrubbers within the command module and run hoses to redirect their cleaned air exhaust into the lunar module. That may have labored, had the command module not wanted to be shut down to order energy for the reentry into the ambiance (solely the command module was designed to return to Earth intact).
After working with others to provide you with the fundamental idea, Smylie and his group wanted to guarantee that it will work.
“I known as each Downey and Kennedy [Space Center] and requested for some canisters to be despatched so we may check that,” stated Smylie, referencing the placement of North American Rockwell, NASA’s contractor for the command module. “We discovered them on the Cape, chartered an airplane — Grumman [NASA’s contractor for the lunar module] chartered an airplane, I assume, or North American did, and flew them up, and we had them that afternoon.”
After studying that their makeshift repair labored as meant, they wanted to provide you with easy methods to inform the Apollo 13 crew easy methods to construct the so-called “mail field” in area.
“We received maintain of T.Ok.,” stated Smylie, referring to Thomas “Ken” Mattingly, who till three days earlier than the mission had been assigned to fly with Lovell and Haise, however was grounded after he was uncovered to the German measles. “T.Ok. was busy doing different issues, and he assigned [fellow astronaut] Tony England to work with us on growing procedures to ship as much as the crew on easy methods to construct this factor.”
Though the jury-rigged answer sounded advanced, Smylie stated that it was “fairly simple.”
“Although we received quite a lot of publicity for it and [President Richard] Nixon even talked about our names, I at all times argued that that was as a result of that was one [problem] you would perceive. No person actually understood the exhausting issues they have been doing. Everyone may perceive a filter,” he stated.
Robert Edwin “Ed” Smylie was born on Dec. 25, 1929, on his grandparents’ farm in Lincoln County, Mississippi. He served within the Navy earlier than attending Mississippi State University, the place he earned his bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in mechanical engineering in 1952 and 1956, respectively. A yr later, he acquired his grasp’s in administration from MIT.
He was employed as an engineer by the Douglas Plane Firm (in the present day, Boeing), engaged on the DC-8 jetliner, in addition to easy methods to air situation supersonic transports and hold thermal management for the Skybolt missile. He joined NASA in 1962 as the pinnacle of the life programs part after which head of the environmental management programs department on the Manned Spacecraft Middle (in the present day, Johnson House Middle) in Houston.
For greater than a decade starting in 1962, Smylie served as assistant chief for Apollo assist, performing chief after which chief of the crew programs division. In 1973, he moved to Washington, D.C., the place at NASA Headquarters he was the deputy affiliate administrator for aeronautics and area expertise, adopted by performing affiliate administrator after which affiliate administrator for area monitoring and knowledge programs.
Smylie concluded his 18 years with NASA as deputy director and performing director of the company’s Goddard House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland. After leaving NASA, Smylie held government positions with RCA, Basic Electrical, Grumman and the Mitre Company.
For his service to the area program, and specifically his function in saving the Apollo 13 crew, Smylie was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and GlobalSpec’s Nice Moments in Engineering Award. He was additionally introduced with the NASA distinctive service medal, distinguished service medal and excellent management medal.
Smylie was preceded in demise by his spouse of 41 years, Carolyn, his brother John, a stepson and his former spouse, June. He’s survived by three kids, Carolyn’s two kids, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
Observe collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
