Failure Is Not An Option

On Tuesday morning at a trade show associated with my work I was privileged to hear a genuine American hero speak about his experiences in the heyday of the American space program. He was none other than Gene Franz whose NASA career spanned the days from the Mercury program to the present day Shuttle system. Many of these space pioneers were and still are household names whose bold work inspired a generation to greatness and led the nation to one of the greatest accomplishment of mankind, man landing on the moon. Many of the technical innovations that we take for granted some 50 years later have a direct lineage back to space motivated research.

While Gene’s career has consisted of many highlights, including being awarded the Presidential Freedom Medal, He is known primarily for being the Flight Controller for the ill fated Apollo 13 mission. Many younger Americans were exposed to the heroic efforts to bring home three Apollo astronauts when their spacecraft was badly damaged while en route to the moon, via the Tom Hanks movie, Apollo 13. In a rather dramatic moment during the film, which mimicked history, Franz uttered his signature phrase, “failure is not an option.” Per his description of the moment, the mandate was clear, there was no other option, and these astronauts were dependent on his team to get them home.

So here I was listening to a recounting of the circumstances and unimaginable challenges faced by Franz and his crew when a slight miscalculation would have led to the deaths of three men and the humiliation of the nation who was locked in a space race with the arch enemy the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. One of the most surprising facts shared by this great American was that the average age in Mission Control during this trying time was 26. Hundreds if not thousands of decisions were being made in the fishbowl of live media coverage as a nation held their breath by young men who were just a few years removed from college performed superhuman feats to develop procedures and design makeshift equipment to nurse the heavily damaged spacecraft around the moon, back to earth and through the tricky reentry of earth’s atmosphere.

There was one rather poignant point in the story when Gene was faced with two options, either one which in theory would have resulted in bringing the astronauts home but the one which would track the shortest route required the firing of the spacecraft’s motor. With nothing to go on other than a gut instinct Gene chose to slingshot around the back of the moon which would take a couple of days longer to execute. Now as I sat glued to my chair hanging on every word of this story, I was fascinated to here this no nonsense, tough as nails, old schooler explain that at the point when he made the gut call he sensed that all we can do is go with the best information we have to work with, and then be content with turning the results over to a higher power.

To cut to the chase, under immense pressure, with lives on the line, and a world looking on the mission was accomplished. But it was not until the astronauts jettisoned their service module prior to earth reentry that they were able to get a look at the magnitude of the damage. As providence would have it, the intuitive call made days earlier was dead on. You see, if he had chose to take the shorter route, which as he reminded us would require firing the spacecraft motor, it would have resulted in the spacecraft bouncing off the gravitational influence of the moon and being irretrievably lost in space. The view of the damaged spacecraft revealed that there was no rocket motor left, it had been blown off. The final picture he painted was the sight of adult men in Mission Control weeping over the site on the big screen monitor of the three parachutes that gently guided the men and their craft back to earth.

Now what does this have to do with Christianity? As I listened to the story I was blown away by the parallels. Mankind is heavily damaged by a sin nature that is propelling us toward a sure doom. The Designer has assembled and equipped a crew in Mission Control and has given the mandate; let’s save these people. Lives are on the line as the rescue plays out in the fishbowl of public scrutiny. Will the mission be accomplished? Failure is not an option!

“God our Savior, . . . desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4.