What happened on Apollo 13?
Quick answer
Apollo 13 was NASA’s third planned Moon landing, launched on April 11, 1970. About 56 hours into the flight, an oxygen tank exploded, crippling the spacecraft. The landing was abandoned, and astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise used the lunar module as a lifeboat, splashing down safely on April 17, 1970.
Key facts
- Launch
- April 11, 1970
- Explosion
- April 13, 1970 (about 56 hours into the mission)
- Crew
- Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise
- Splashdown
- April 17, 1970, South Pacific
“Houston, we’ve had a problem”
After a routine request to stir the oxygen tanks, oxygen tank No. 2 exploded. A damaged wire inside had sparked. Swigert radioed, “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and Lovell repeated, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” The 1995 film Apollo 13 changed it to “Houston, we have a problem.”
The explosion drained the command module’s oxygen and power supplies.
The lunar module lifeboat
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Command module (Odyssey) losing power | Shut it down to save its batteries for re-entry |
| Where to live | Moved into the lunar module (Aquarius), designed for 2 people for 2 days; it held 3 people for about 4 days |
| Getting home | Swung around the Moon and used Aquarius’s engine to speed the return |
| Carbon dioxide building up | Engineers invented a way to fit the command module’s square filters into the lunar module’s round sockets, using plastic bags, cardboard and tape |
| Cold | Cabin temperatures fell close to freezing |
A record and a “successful failure”
Swinging around the far side of the Moon, the crew traveled about 400,000 km from Earth, a distance record for humans that stood for decades. NASA called Apollo 13 a “successful failure”: the mission failed, but the rescue was a triumph of teamwork. Flight director Gene Kranz led the team in Mission Control.
What happened next
An investigation traced the fault to a damaged tank and a thermostat switch that hadn’t been upgraded for higher voltage. The tanks were redesigned, and Apollo 14 landed on the Moon in February 1971.
For the first successful landing, see who was the first person on the Moon. For the first person in space, see which country sent the first human into space.
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