APOLLO INQUIRY

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32314, 4 June 1970, Page 11

APOLLO INQUIRY

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(N Z P A -Reuter—Copyright)

HOUSTON, June 3

An error at Cape Kennedy was the likely cause of the} failure of the Apollo 13 moon| mission, the chief investigator ( (Mr Edgar Cortright), said today. Tests had indicated that two thermal switches in an oxygen tank, designed to take 30 volts, were subjected to 65 volts during a pre-launch procedure, Mr Cortright told reporters. As a result, the switches probably welded and the insulation was burned off some wires, which short-circuited when Apollo 13 was two days out from the earth. Fire broke out in the No. 2 oxygen tank, burning a hole in it and blowing out a panel of the spacecraft’s service ( module, which housed propulsion and other systems. Mr Cortright, a National I Aeronautics and Space Agency i executive who is presiding over the Apollo 13 Review Board, declined to classify the failure as a human error at, this stage. He said he wasl trying to determine precisely how the error at Cape Kennedy could have been made/ and hoped to release his I team's findings next week.