Apollo 13 Member Interacts With Visitors At Tulsa Air & Space Museum

Some Tulsans got to meet Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum on Saturday.

It was part of the Museum's Aviator Ball.

Apollo 13 crew member and OU graduate Fred Haise visited the Tulsa Air and Space Museum to sign autographs and talk about his book, "Never Panic Early."

For some visitors, this was their chance to meet a legend.

"You know one of the sayings that they always say is 'never meet your heroes,' but Fred Haise is a hero," visitor Lois Huneycutt said.

Haise was the lunar module pilot of the 1970 Apollo 13 Mission to the Moon.

He would have been the sixth man on the moon, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded.

NASA had to get creative to come up with a way to make the rest of the oxygen last long enough to get Haise, and the rest of the crew back to earth safely.

The mission captivated America, even leading the president to call for the entire country to pray for the three men's safe return. The events were dramatized in the 1995 movie, "Apollo 13," In which Bill Paxton portrayed Haise.

Haise says he loves meeting people who are passionate about space and aviation.

"Just to get to meet people," Haise said. "Get to visit it briefly. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked just to look around. Museums are always great places."

Haise also gave a presentation about everything he experienced when the explosion happened.

He hopes people take the book title "Never Panic Early" to heart.

"You scratch your head about it and figure out, what am I going to, what's the best possibilities and solutions," Haise said.

Huneycutt says it was also great to see younger people be so invested in the great unknown.

"I love it when we have kids and we have college students and we have high school students that are out here," Huneycutt said.

"I'm happy that people are interested and come to the museums and take part," Haise said.