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Apollo 13 crew reunites 40 years later

A pre-impact image of lunar south pole is seen at in an undated NASA photo. The site of a planned crash by a NASA rocket is labeled in the photo. Scientists hope the crash will help uncover ice on the moon. UPI/NASA/MSFC
1 of 2 | A pre-impact image of lunar south pole is seen at in an undated NASA photo. The site of a planned crash by a NASA rocket is labeled in the photo. Scientists hope the crash will help uncover ice on the moon. UPI/NASA/MSFC | License Photo

CHICAGO, April 13 (UPI) -- Apollo 13 astronauts said at a Chicago reunion they fear space enthusiasm is being diminished because there are no plans to send an American back to the moon.

The two surviving crew members of the Apollo 13 mission and three ground control directors met for a 40th anniversary celebration at the Adler Planetarium Tuesday night, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported.

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The April 11-17, 1970, moon mission almost turned fatal due to a spacecraft malfunction. The NASA ground crew, which included Gene Kranz, Gerald Griffin and Milton Windler, who attended the celebration, struggled to bring home the severely damaged spacecraft containing astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, the newspapers reported.

"I remember about five years after it was over saying 'Do you realize they actually paid us to do that?' It was so much fun, but it was risky. We thought we were bulletproof," said Kranz, 77, chief of NASA's flight control division and the operational chief of the Apollo moon missions.

But Kranz said the culture of space exploration has lost impetus.

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Lovell agreed.

"I think the plans for the future are sort of muddy. It seems like they want to develop technology without goals for developing the technology. There are no goals that I can see remaining for the program," he said.

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