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On Monday, April 13, it will be fifty years ago that the Apollo 13 landing was interrupted prematurely after an oxygen tank exploded from the capsule. Fifty years later, people around the world remember Commander James Lovell’s statement – “Houston, we’ve had a problem” – that he spoke of when he told the mission about the accident.
The mission began as a happiness story for astronauts James Lovell (commander), Ken Mattingly (command module pilot), and Fred Haise (lunar lander pilot). The trio actually formed the Apollo 14 crew, but were allowed to advance.
Due to recent ear surgery, the original Apollo 13 crew commander Alan Shepard had to undergo further training. Lovell, Haise, and Mattingly had already been the backup crew for the first moon landing, Apollo 11, and Lovell participated in Apollo 8, making him one of the first people to orbit the moon.
There are already problems shortly before launch. A backup crew member, who trained with the main crew, contracts measles. The main crew and the backup train together, threatening to infect everyone. The pilot of the main crew, Mattingly, is the only one in the group who has never had measles before, and is replaced by Jack Swigert.
Apollo 13. Crew From left to right: Jack Swigert, James Lovell, Fred Haise. (Photo: NASA)
Astronaut seems to have forgotten tax returns
On April 11, 1970, the three astronauts go out on the moon. Accidents already occur during launch: a motor in the second stage of the rocket stops two minutes early due to strong vibrations. The other engines burn a little more and the mission can continue. In hindsight, it turns out, the failure could have become almost catastrophic.
After launch, everything goes according to the book. However, pilot Jack Swigert realizes on the second day of the mission that he has forgotten his tax return. Fortunately, you are receiving a sixty day extension because you were not in the country, or on the planet, by the deadline.
The Apollo missions spacecraft. The cylinder is the service module, the cone on the right is the command module. (Photo: NASA)
In a “lifeboat” 330,000 kilometers from Earth
The astronaut’s vehicle consisted of two parts: the command module (CM) where the astronauts are located, called Odyssey, and the service module (SM) that supplies power, oxygen, and water to the CM. In front of the command module is the lunar lander, called the Aquarius, which eventually disconnects to land on the moon.
On April 13, 1970, a dull thud sounds, which later turns out to be an exploded oxygen tank. “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” Lovell told Houston Mission Control. The Odyssey loses oxygen and energy and the crew is diverted to the lunar lander like a lifeboat. To save power before landing on Earth, the command module systems are turned off.
The Aquarius lander has its own supply of oxygen and energy, but is intended for two astronauts, not three. It was also not built to withstand a full flight, just a short stay on the moon. A series of impromptu technical interventions make the best of a difficult situation.
While the spacecraft performs an emergency maneuver around the moon and the snakes return to Earth, Lovell, Haise, and Swigert must survive in the absence of light, heat, and water, in a space that is actually too small for them. Astronauts lose weight, and Haise even contracts a urinary tract infection.
The Apollo 13 broken service module, seen from the capsule. (Photo: NASA)
Landing on Earth after four days of neglect
Astronauts return to Earth four days after the explosion, on April 17. Before landing, the service module falls and, for the first time, the crew sees disaster damage. Among other things, a large portion of the vehicle’s exterior wall has been blown up.
The crew returns from the lifeboat to the command module and turns the systems back on. The lunar lander Aquarius is dropped and the Odyssey lands in the Pacific Ocean, where the crew is greeted on a ship by the US Navy.
Lovell, Haise and Swigert first set foot on solid ground in Hawaii, where the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, awards them the highest award: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
None of the Apollo 13 astronauts have been in space since then. Commander Lovell is the only astronaut to orbit the moon twice, but he never stepped on the celestial body.
Apollo 13 lands in the Pacific. (Photo: NASA)
