Apollo 13-A Miracle in Outer Space

Fifty years ago this month the world held its breath as three American astronauts drifted through space in a crippled command module. With depleted oxygen tanks and only a trickle of electric power, only gravity, precise navigation, and a miracle of engineering could save them from a dark and lingering death in deep space.

The dramatic story of Apollo 13 has been told in books, documentaries, and a movie, but writer-historian Rusty Williams witnessed events first-hand from the Mission Operations Control Room at the Manned Spacecraft Center. As a junior reporter for the Associated Press, Williams observed ─ and wrote about ─ the backstage magic eventually brought the astronauts home safely.

Williams will tell his exciting story for the first time at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9 at the Allen Public Library. Former KERA-FM news editor B. J. Austin will interview Williams on-stage, asking for details and stories not generally known to the public.

Rusty Williams is an award-winning writer and speaker, the author of four history books. His Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle (Texas A&M University Press, 2016) was named “Best Book of Oklahoma History, 2016”

by the Oklahoma Historical Society. My Old Confederate Home—A

Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky,

2010) won the 2011 Douglas S. Freeman Award for Southern History.

The library is located at 300 N. Allen Dr. Call 214-509-4911 for additional information.

Official Site