AFTER five months of relative somnolence, Cape Kennedy was once more a scene of feverish activity. All attention last week was focused on launch pad 39A, where the Apollo 13 spacecraft rested atop a huge Saturn 5 rocket, ready to carry U.S. astronauts to their third landing on the moon. As the long countdown began, there was noticeably less excitement than had accompanied previous moon missions; the complex Apollo launchings have already become almost routine.
But there is nothing routine about the mission planned for Astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise and Ken Mattingly. It...