From Recorded Future News, I'm Dina Temple Reston and this is Click here.
Last week, we took you inside a space mission.
We told you the story of Odie, the little lunar lander that could.
And we introduced you to some of the people at the Houston aerospace company that created it and sent it to the moon.
4, 3, 2, 1, ignition.
And liftoff.
Go.
SpaceX.
And everything was going according to plan when just hours before Odie was set to land, disaster struck.
Remember Apollo 13?
Hey, we've got a problem here.
This is Houston.
Say again, please.
Houston, we have a problem.
In Apollo 13's case, an explosion had disabled the spacecraft's electrical and life support systems.
Odie's problem was less dramatic, but no less critical.
An instrument that would help it land wasn't working.
My partner comes in, he goes, hey, Tim, the laser altimeters aren't going to fire.
And the blood just drained from my face.
Odie didn't have humans on board, so there was no one to physically MacGyver the laser altimeter.