April 2009 - Apollo 13

During NASA's Project Apollo phase, Apollo 13 was the 3rd manned lunar-landing mission. The crew members were Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise.

Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970. Two days after the launch, an electrical fault caused an explosion in a Service Module oxygen tank. The explosion also damaged the other oxygen tank or its plumbing, resulting in a complete loss of oxygen and electrical power. The Command Module (Odyssey) remained fully functional on its own batteries and oxygen tank, but they were sufficient only for the last hours of the mission during re-entry and landing. The crew shut down the Command Module and used the Lunar Module (Aquarius) as a “lifeboat” for the return to earth. Despite great hardship caused by severely limited power, cabin heat, and potable water, the crew successfully returned to Earth and the mission eventually became known as a "successful failure". A radio transmission from Commander Lovell during the mission, "Houston, we've had a problem", spawned the misquoted phrase in popular culture, "Houston, we have a problem".

On the way to the Moon, at a distance of 200,000 miles from Earth, one of the two oxygen tanks in the Service Module, exploded. Prior to the explosion, Mission Control had asked the crew to stir the hydrogen and oxygen tanks, which helps increase the accuracy of oxygen readings. Damaged insulation on the wires to the stirrer motor in the oxygen tank 2 caused the wires to short and ignite the insulation. The resulting fire rapidly increased pressure beyond its nominal limits and either the tank or the tank dome failed; the cause was unknown at the time.

Oxygen leaked out over the next several hours, entirely depleting the supply in the Service Module. Because the service module fuel cells combined hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and water, this left the module on limited battery power. The crew was forced to shut down the module completely and to use the lunar module as a "lifeboat". This resulted in an aborted moon landing, but without the lunar module, the accident would certainly have been fatal.

The Apollo 13 crew survived their ordeal because at the time of the accident, they had backup stores of critical commodities: extra power, water, and oxygen - and even an extra engine. They returned to earth April 17, 1970. On April 18, 1970, President Nixon awarded the crew the Presidential Medal of Freedom.





Mission Control




The crew of Apollo 13 onboard the USS Iwo Jima following splashdown.