John W. Aaron is a former NASA engineer and mission controller during the Apollo program. He is widely credited with saving the Apollo 12 mission after it was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff and was one of the central figures during the famous Apollo 13 recovery efforts. NASA Logo The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. ... Mission control center (MCC) is a unit that manages aerospace flights. ... Description Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot Dimensions Height: 36. ... Apollo 12 was the sixth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. ... Apollo 13 was an American space mission, part of the Apollo program. ...

Aaron was the youngest of eight children born to a struggling southwestern Oklahoma farmer and cattle rancher. He attended Bethany Nazarene College for a year before transferring to Southwestern Oklahoma State University. After graduating, he planned to become a teacher but was hired by NASA and became a EECOM specialist. Oklahoma is a South Central state of the United States (with strong Southern, Western, and Midwestern influences) and its U.S. postal abbreviation is OK; others abbreviate the states name Okla. ... EECOM, short for Environmental, Electrical and Communication, is one of the flight director roles allocated at Mission Control for manned missions. ...

Aaron was a 24 year old EECOM controller at the time of the Apollo 12 flight. The capsule was struck by lightning 36 seconds after liftoff causing a power surge. Instruments began to malfunction, communication became garbled, and telemetry data was lost. NASA considered aborting the flight. Apollo 12 was the sixth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. ... Telemetry is a technology which allows the remote measurement and reporting of information of interest to the system designer or operator. ...

Several months before the flight, Aaron had been going over simulator data when he, on his own initiative, began examining the obscure Signal Condition Equipment system and its functions. He became one of the only mission controllers who knew much of anything about how the system operated. He recommenced that the flight crew set the system to "auxiliary" mode to try to restore the system.

When he gave the order, "Flight, try SCE to 'Aux'", most of his mission control colleagues had no idea what he was talking about. Pete Conrad didn't even know where the switch was located, but Alan Bean was familiar with the system and flipped the switch. Telemetry was restored and the mission was saved. Pete Conrad, NASA File Photo Charles Pete Conrad, Jr. ... Alan Beans NASA photo Alan Bean (born March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas) is a former NASA Astronaut. ...

Aaron worked on the power supply problem during the Apollo 13 rescue effort. After the Apollo program ended, Aaron remained at NASA and worked on the Skylab, Space Shuttle, and the aborted Space Station Freedom programs before becoming head of NASA's Engineering Directorate in 1993. He retired from NASA in 2000. Drawing of Skylab with components labelled Americas first space station, the 75 metric ton Skylab, was in Earth orbit from 1973-1979, and visited by crews three times in 1973 and 1974. ... The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition, 1981 (NASA). ... Space Station Freedom was the name given to NASAs project to construct a permanently-manned earth-orbiting space station. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Aaron was portrayed by actor Loren Dean in the 1995 film Apollo 13 and by John Travis in the 1998 mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. Actor Loren Dean (born on 31 July 1969 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) starred in movies such as Billy Bathgate and Enemy of the State. ... Apollo 13 is a 1995 film portrayal of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... A miniseries, in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... From the Earth to the Moon was a twelve part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. ...

External Links

• Transcript of an oral history interview with John Aaron
• Apollo 12 lightning strike