Crisis Management in the Film “Apollo 13” Essay (Movie Review)

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The film Apollo 13 (1995) depicts one of the most remarkable NASA missions. This mission is often referred to as a “successful failure” (Loftus). The flight to the Moon was called a failure as the astronauts never landed on it. However, it was also a success, as, despite major damage to the spaceship, all astronauts returned to the Earth in safety. The mission, as depicted in the movie, can also serve as an illustration of certain flaws and strengths in the crisis management strategy.

One of the response team’s major accomplishments lay in their compliance with some of the central principles of the National Incident Management System. The principle of unity of effort was followed to the fullest. This principle calls for the contribution of each member of the team to achieve a particular goal (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 3). The film shows that the crew and the team worked hard to develop ways to bring the astronauts home. The team head’s commitment to success was also instrumental in achieving this objective.

However, the principles of flexibility and standardization were followed only partially. For instance, the ground team and the astronauts were quite flexible as they set about developing new ways to address their challenges. They also received substantial training to solve various issues that arose. Nevertheless, there were periods when the crew and the team felt lost and even despaired. Communication (the way people communicated and the technological devices they used) was not very effective at times, which reveals flaws in people’s training. Finally, the risk management plan had various flaws, which means that standards were poorly crafted.

All in all, the mission can be considered a success, as people returned home despite major damage to the spaceship. The team and the crew were flexible enough and had trained to respond to many challenges. However, the stage of planning was a failure as the developers failed to consider all possibilities.

Works Cited

Loftus, Geoff. Forbes. 2013, Web.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “National Incident Management System.” FEMA. 2017, Web.

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IvyPanda. 2020. "Crisis Management in the Film "Apollo 13"." December 25, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/crisis-management-in-the-film-apollo-13/.

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IvyPanda. "Crisis Management in the Film "Apollo 13"." December 25, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/crisis-management-in-the-film-apollo-13/.

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