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Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, launched on April 11, 1970, with the goal of landing on the Moon. An oxygen tank explosion two days into the mission forced the crew to abort the landing and instead loop around the Moon before safely returning to Earth on April 17. The mission highlighted the challenges of space travel and led to significant changes in safety protocols for future missions.

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Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, launched on April 11, 1970, with the goal of landing on the Moon. An oxygen tank explosion two days into the mission forced the crew to abort the landing and instead loop around the Moon before safely returning to Earth on April 17. The mission highlighted the challenges of space travel and led to significant changes in safety protocols for future missions.

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tracanin
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Apollo 13

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article is about the 1970 spaceflight. For the film based upon it, see Apollo
13 (film). For other uses, see Apollo 13 (disambiguation).

Apollo 13

Odyssey's damaged service module, as seen from the Apollo Lunar


Module Aquarius, hours before reentry

Mission type Crewed lunar landing attempt (H)

Operator NASA
CSM: 1970-029A
COSPAR ID
LM: 1970-029C

SATCAT no. 4371[1]

Mission duration 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes,


41 seconds[2]

Spacecraft properties

Spacecraft Apollo CSM-109


Apollo LM-7

Manufacturer CSM: North American Rockwell


LM: Grumman

Launch mass 44,069 kg (CSM: 28,881 kg;[3] LM:


15,188 kg)[4]

Landing mass 5,050 kilograms (11,133 lb)[5]

Crew

Crew size 3

Members James A. Lovell Jr.


John L. Swigert Jr.
Fred W. Haise Jr.

Callsign CSM: Odyssey


LM: Aquarius

Start of mission

Launch date April 11, 1970, 19:13:00 UTC[6]

Rocket Saturn V SA-508

Launch site Kennedy LC-39A

End of mission

Recovered by USS Iwo Jima

Landing date April 17, 1970, 18:07:41 UTC

Landing site South Pacific Ocean


21°38′24″S 165°21′42″W

Flyby of Moon (orbit and landing aborted)

Closest approach April 15, 1970, 00:21:00 UTC

Distance 254 kilometers (137 nmi)


Docking with LM

Docking date April 11, 1970, 22:32:08 UTC

Undocking date April 17, 1970, 16:43:00 UTC

Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise


Apollo program
← Apollo 12
Apollo 14 →

Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space
program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched
from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was aborted after an
oxygen tank in the service module (SM) exploded two days into the mission,
disabling its electrical and life-support system. The crew, supported by backup
systems on the lunar module (LM), instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar
trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The mission was commanded
by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot and Fred
Haise as lunar module (LM) pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly,
who was grounded after exposure to rubella.

A routine stir of an oxygen tank ignited damaged wire insulation inside it, causing an
explosion that vented the contents of both of the SM's oxygen tanks to space. [note
1]
Without oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electric power, the SM's
propulsion and life support systems could not operate. The CM's systems had to be
shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to
transfer to the LM as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing canceled, mission controllers
worked to bring the crew home alive.
Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two
days, Mission Control in Houston improvised new procedures so it could support
three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship, caused by limited
power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of potable water. There was a critical
need to adapt the CM's cartridges for the carbon dioxide scrubber system to work in
the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution.
The astronauts' peril briefly renewed public interest in the Apollo program; tens of
millions watched the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean on television.

An investigative review board found fault with preflight testing of the oxygen tank
and Teflon being placed inside it. The board recommended changes, including
minimizing the use of potentially combustible items inside the tank; this was done
for Apollo 14. The story of Apollo 13 has been dramatized several times, most
notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13 based on Lost Moon, the 1994 memoir co-authored
by Lovell – and an episode of the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.

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