The spacecraft suffered an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon.
On April 11, 1970, NASA launched its third moon-landing mission, Apollo 13. The mission included three crew members; Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot, and Fred Haise as Lunar Module (LM) pilot.
Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the mission.
The mission's goal was to explore the Fra Mauro plateau on the lunar surface. The astronauts were supposed to take samples and conduct geological experiments.
However, the lunar landing was soon aborted as an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) failed two days into the mission. The crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.
About the space vehicle
A Saturn V rocket was used for the mission which weighed 2,949,136 kilograms.
The craft consisted of Command Module 109 and Service Module 109 (together CSM-109), called Odyssey, and Lunar Module 7 (LM-7), called Aquarius. Also, it had the launch escape system and the Spacecraft–LM Adapter, numbered SLA-16.
Some interesting facts
'Apollo 13' is termed a “successful failure” because the crew members were returned safely to Earth.
The mission was originally scheduled to be launched on March 12, however, NASA announced to postpone it in January of that year.
The film 'Houston, We've Got a Problem' is set around the Apollo 13 incident. It is a fictional take on the issues throughout the mission. Also, there is an episode ('Houston ... We've Got a Problem') of the BBC documentary series 'A Life At Stake' that shows the event more accurately.
All of the crew members of Apollo 13 left NASA shortly after the mission failed.
After the failure of Apollo 13, the US space agency redesigned the Apollo spacecraft. It added to the next Apollo spacecraft water storage bags in the main module, a more powerful battery in the Lunar Module, an auxiliary oxygen tank prepared to supply the crew, and more.
