Apollo 13

Spacecraft· NASAinactive

Apollo 13 — the 'successful failure' (April 1970). An oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon; the crew used the Lunar Module as a lifeboat and looped around the Moon to return home alive.

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Key facts

Distance from Sun

1.01 AU

Status

Completed

Launched

1970

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA
Launched: April 11, 1970
Status: Completed

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun: 1.01 AU
Distance from Earth: 387,570 km
Distance from Venus: 0.646 AU

Mission

Apollo 13 was to be the third lunar landing; instead it became spaceflight's most famous rescue — the 'successful failure'. Launched on 11 April 1970 with James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, the mission was running smoothly until, on the evening of 13 April, a routine request from the ground to stir the Service Module's cryogenic tanks caused an oxygen tank to explode. Damaged insulation inside the tank had ignited, blowing out the side of the Service Module. 'Houston, we've had a problem,' Swigert and then Lovell reported, as the crew watched their oxygen and electrical power bleed away some 320,000 kilometres from Earth. The Moon landing was abandoned within hours; survival was now the only goal. With the Command Module dying, the crew shut it down to preserve its re-entry batteries and retreated into the Lunar Module 'Aquarius' as a makeshift lifeboat — a craft built for two men for two days, now keeping three alive for four. In Houston, flight director Gene Kranz's team improvised relentlessly: they swung the spacecraft around the Moon on a free-return trajectory, nursed dwindling power and water, and famously devised a way to fit the Command Module's square carbon-dioxide scrubbers into the Lunar Module's round receptacles using only what was aboard — tape, cardboard and a sock. The controller Sy Liebergot had been the first to read the failing telemetry; now the whole of mission control worked the problem hour by hour. Cold, exhausted and dehydrated, the crew powered the frozen Command Module back to life for the final plunge and splashed down safely in the Pacific on 17 April. Apollo 13 flew no science, yet it became NASA's finest demonstration of teamwork and improvisation under pressure.

1970Apollo 13 launchesLaunch
Lovell, Swigert and Haise set out for the Fra Mauro highlands.
1970'Houston, we've had a problem'Milestone
An oxygen tank explodes, crippling the Service Module some 320,000 km from Earth; the landing is abandoned.
1970The lifeboat around the MoonMilestone
The crew shelter in the Lunar Module 'Aquarius' and swing around the Moon on a free-return path toward home.
1970The carbon-dioxide fixMilestone
Mission control devises a way to join the wrong-shaped CO2 scrubbers with tape and cardboard, saving the air.
1970SplashdownMission end
The crew power up the frozen Command Module and splash down safely in the Pacific — a 'successful failure'.

Images

The crippled Apollo 13 Service Module, photographed after it was jettisoned — NASA (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

View of Mission Control Center during the Apollo 13 emergency return — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Fused thermal switch from Apollo Service Module oxygen tank after test — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

View of Mission Control Center during the Apollo 13 liftoff — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Mission Control Center (MCC) View - Apollo 13 Splashdown - MSC — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Mission Control during the Apollo 13 emergency, April 14, 1970 — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

PRELAUNCH - APOLLO 13 (ROLLOUT) - KSC — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

View of Mission Control Center during Apollo 13 splashdown — NASA/JSC · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image