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What Happened to Apollo 13?

Even before the well-received Ron Howard movie, the Apollo 13 mission was arguably the most famous catastrophe in the history of manned space flight, and the only one in which the crew recovered from a major accident to return to Earth alive. The incident remains important to this day, not only as an inspiring story of human triumph against all odds, but also for the lessons it holds for future deep-space missions, such as a return to the moon or a manned mission to Mars.

Time Frame
- The Apollo 13 mission lifted off for the moon on April 11, 1970. They returned to Earth on April 17.
Identification
- Apollo 13 was third manned lunar-landing mission, and the seventh of the overall program. On board were Mission Commander James Lovell, Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise. The mission spacecraft consisted of the Command Module/Service Module spacecraft, which would make the round-trip, and the Lunar Module, which was supposed to be left on the moon.
History
- Two days into the mission, the Command and Service Modules were crippled by an explosion in the #2 oxygen tank. It has been speculated that wires leading to the tank's mechanisms had been damaged either before or during launch. When orders came from Mission Control to stir the contents of the tank, these wires shorted, igniting the explosion. The explosion also blew off the side of the Service Module and damaged the #1 tank. This was critical because on the Apollo spacecraft, oxygen was not just for breathing. The oxygen was also used in the spacecraft's fuel cells to generate electricity, so the loss of all stored oxygen in the Service Module left it solely on batteries. These were not enough to return to Earth, let alone land on the moon. The crew abandoned plans to land on the moon, used the Lunar Module as a lifeboat and sought to return to Earth. As the Lunar Module was originally designed for a short stay on the moon with a crew of two, and was now returning to Earth with a crew of three, this strained the ingenuity and resources of the mission to the limits. For example, electrical power had to be used sparingly because of the limited supply aboard the lunar module. Replacements for the atmosphere scrubbers had to be improvised to prevent carbon dioxide build-up in the ship's air. All these problems were negotiated and the crew returned safely to Earth.
Effects
- Following the success of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, public interest in the U.S. Space Program was flagging. The drama of Apollo 13's narrowly averted disaster revived interest for a time.
Significance
- Apollo 13 has been called the "successful failure" of space exploration. The mission stands as one of the very few disasters in manned space exploration where the situation was partly recovered and the crew returned safely to Earth. It was also the only disaster of its kind that took place in interplanetary/trans-orbital space. It remains the greatest incident of its kind in the history of manned spaceflight.
Expert Insight
- After the return of the Apollo 13 crew, Grumman (builders of the Lunar Module) sent an joke invoice for $312,421.24 to Rockwell (builders of the Command Module) for "towing fees."

Astronomy