With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth.
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On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida,
carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W.
Haise. The mission was headed for a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands
of the moon. However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000
miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft.
Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we’ve had a
problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen,
electricity, light, and water had been disrupted. The landing mission
was aborted, and the astronauts and controllers on Earth scrambled to
come up with emergency procedures. The crippled spacecraft continued to
the moon, circled it, and began a long, cold journey back to Earth.
The astronauts and mission control were faced with enormous
logistical problems in stabilizing the spacecraft and its air supply, as
well as providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow
successful reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Navigation was another
problem, and Apollo 13‘s course was repeatedly corrected with dramatic and untested maneuvers. On April 17, tragedy turned to triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
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