Apollo 13 astronaut to star at fundraiser

Forty years ago this month, television viewers around the world sat on the edges of their seats while three American astronauts maneuvered the crippled Apollo 13 spaceship back to safety after an onboard explosion crippled the vehicle some 200,000 miles from Earth.

On Saturday at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, that historic event will be recalled by Fred Haise, one of the three Apollo 13 astronauts, and Joe Gavin, a retired Grumman Corp. president who headed the company's space program. Dick Dunne, who was a Grumman public relations executive, will moderate the program, which is open to the public; tickets are $50; $100 if you want to attend a dinner.

But the three will not just be looking back, Dunne said. They will also be talking about President Barack Obama's plans for space exploration and whether that plan will leave the United States far behind stepped-up space efforts by Russia and China.

Obama has been leaning toward private companies - including start-ups - to lead the way in space in the next decade, instead of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The small companies, Obama has said, could build launch vehicles and other elements to explore the heavens.

But, Dunne said, he will quiz Gavin and Haise on whether they think such vehicles would be sophisticated and reliable enough for space travel.

Grumman and other Long Island companies played a major role in the Apollo program. Grumman, now Northrop Grumman Corp., built the lunar landing vehicle that took astronauts from an orbiting spacecraft to the moon in the late 1960s and '70s.

It was that Grumman lunar lander that astronauts Haise, James Lovell and Jack Swigert used as a "lifeboat'' for part of their journey back to Earth after an explosion of a liquid oxygen tank in Apollo 13's service module abruptly ended their voyage to the moon.

"There's been a very enthusiastic response from former Grumman people" to the Saturday event, Dunne said. It's going to be a reunion."

President Barack Obama's plans for space program:

End the space shuttle program this year, as previously planned.

Spend $6 billion to develop unmanned vehicles to explore the solar system.

Direct NASA to focus on developing rocket systems that might eventually take humans into deep space and help private companies build spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Plan to send astronauts beyond the moon into deep space as soon as 2025. By the mid-2030s Obama said the United States should be ready to send humans to orbit Mars.