Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was an American space mission, part of the Apollo program. It was intended to be the third mission to land on the Moon.

Launched: April 11, 1970

Returned: April 17, 1970

Crew members: Jim Lovell, commander; Jack Swigert, command module pilot; Fred Haise, lunar module pilot.

Command module: Odyssey

Lunar module: Aquarius

Intended lunar landing site: Fra Mauro highlands

An oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded while the spacecraft was on its way to the Moon, requiring the mission to be aborted: the Moon landing was cancelled and only a single pass around the Moon was made. Considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure was required from both the crew and the ground controllers to figure out how to jury-rig the craft for the crew's safe return, with much of the world watching the drama on television. Central to the survival of the crew was the use of the Lunar Module (still attached to the Command Module) as a "lifeboat" as the explosion had damaged the craft's electrical systems, precluding the generation of enough power to keep the Command Module operational.

In order to accomplish a safe return to Earth, a significant course correction to place the spacecraft on a free return trajectory was required. This was performed by firing the lunar module's descent engine. The engine was fired again after passage around the Moon in order to accelerate the spacecraft's return to Earth. (As a result of following the free return trajectory, the altitude of Apollo 13 over the lunar far side was approximately 100 km greater than the corresponding orbital altitude on the remaining Apollo lunar missions. Though this difference is swamped by the variation in distance between the Earth and the Moon owing to the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit about the Earth, this fact has sometimes generated sentiment favouring the award of the world altitude record to the Apollo 13 crew).

Reentry in the Earth's atmosphere required the unusual step of undocking and jettisoning the lunar module, which had been retained for the flight back to Earth, in addition to the separation of the damaged service module. The crew returned unharmed on the Earth.

Jim Lovell's book about the mission, Lost Moon, was later turned into a successful movie, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.

Mission notes:

• Swigert was a replacement for Ken Mattingly, who later flew to the Moon aboard Apollo 16. Mattingly was exposed to the measles prior to the mission, and NASA officials insisted upon removing him from the flight so as not to endanger the mission.

Famous misquote: "Houston, we have a problem"
Actual quote: "Houston, we've had a problem", first uttered by Swigert to ground, then repeated by Lovell.

Preceded by : Apollo 12

Apollo program

Followed by : Apollo 14

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There is also a movie by the name of Apollo 13 about the Apollo mission of the same name.