Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise: Never Panic Early

Happy Veterans Day! This episode of Big Blend Radio's “Travel with Terri” Podcast heads to a destination most of us will never reach. Terri and her pilot husband Ron Guthrie talk with Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, a Biloxi, Mississippi native who served in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force before he became the lunar module pilot on the 1970 mission that never landed on the Moon and became the greatest survival story in space exploration history.

Listen to the episode:

Astronaut Fred Haise turns 93 on November 14, 2026

Fred turns 93 on November 14, 2026. In this conversation he is warm, funny and refreshingly modest, and he credits the thousands of people on the ground for bringing his crew home.

KEY CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS

Three honorable discharges. On Veterans Day, Fred looks at the three framed discharges in his office. He started as a Navy aviation cadet, became a Marine Corps second lieutenant with two fighter squadrons, and later flew with the Air National Guard in Oklahoma and Ohio. He was also recalled for eight months during the second Berlin crisis.

The road to Apollo 13. Fred was a backup on Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 and watched Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon. A crew rotation moved his crew ahead to Apollo 13, and just days before launch, Jack Swigert replaced Ken Mattingly in the command module.

The explosion and the lost landing. Two days out, a routine stir of the oxygen tanks led to the explosion. Fred recognized right away what the gauges meant, and says his biggest emotion was disappointment, not fear, because he knew his chance to walk on the Moon was gone.

Powering up in the dark. With the command module shut down, Fred and Jack Swigert had to restart it for reentry using a procedure that had to be invented from scratch. They copied it by hand on the backs of checklist books, wiped water off the instrument panel, and pushed in the circuit breakers six at a time.

The people behind the mission. Fred describes the Mission Evaluation Room and its sign: "God is welcome. All others bring data." He also explains how the Crew Systems team led by Ed Smylie built and tested the carbon dioxide fix in a vacuum chamber before it was read up to the crew.

After splashdown. The celebrations and the overseas tour were scheduled almost minute by minute, but Fred found a few days off in Crete, where he went scuba diving over an ancient site.

Test pilot honors and Space Shuttle Enterprise. Fred treasures the awards he received from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, including one for the approach and landing tests of Enterprise, air launched from the top of a 747. He points out that every Enterprise flight had a Mississippian aboard. Ron adds his own story about flying the shuttle simulator.

EAA AirVenture and the EAA Aviation Museum. Fred has given talks and joined panels at EAA, and he joined a panel from Houston by Zoom just days before this conversation. Terri and Ron are putting Oshkosh on their bucket list, and Terri notes that the museum offers veterans free admission on Veterans Day.

Service, sacrifice and friends who saw combat. Fred and Gene Cernan both felt that they never saw combat during the Vietnam era, while friends did. Ron, a retired fighter pilot, adds that many pilots are lost in training in peacetime.

Advice for the next generation. Fred tells students to look at the subjects they enjoy and the homework they don't mind, then match that natural talent to a career they will enjoy most days.

Apollo 13 and Artemis. Fred and Ron compare Apollo 13's path with Artemis II, and Fred explains why picking a Moon landing site from photographs alone is so hard.