[176] Haise was slated to have been the commander of the canceled Apollo 19 mission, and flew the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests before retiring from NASA in 1979. Deke Slayton, NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, never intended to rotate Cooper and Eisele to a prime crew assignment, as both were out of favor – Cooper for his lax attitude towards training, and Eisele for incidents aboard Apollo 7 and an extramarital affair. On April 14, 1970, the Apollo 13 Saturn IVB upper stage impacted the moon north of Mare Cognitum. [64], Apollo 13's designated landing site was near Fra Mauro crater; the Fra Mauro formation was believed to contain much material spattered by the impact that had filled the Imbrium basin early in the Moon's history. Instead, Lovell and Haise wore their lunar EVA boots and Swigert put on an extra coverall. However, the tanks were redesigned to also run off the
65 volt DC ground power at Kennedy Space Center. is equal to 10:05 PM EST on April 13, 1970. This made the vehicle the heaviest yet flown by NASA, and Apollo 13 was visibly slower to clear the launch tower than earlier missions. [157] The board praised the response to the emergency: "The imperfection in Apollo 13 constituted a near disaster, averted only by outstanding performance on the part of the crew and the ground control team which supported them. [179] The impact occurred at 77:56:40 into the mission and produced enough energy that the gain on the seismometer, 117 kilometers (73 mi) from the impact, had to be reduced. [178], As a joke, Grumman issued an invoice to North American Rockwell, prime contractor for the CSM, for "towing" the CSM most of the way to the Moon and back. We never dreamed a billion people were following us on television and radio, and reading about us in banner headlines of every newspaper published. [45][46] Some in the media erroneously reported that the call sign was taken from a song by that name from the musical Hair. [209], Lovell practices deploying the ALSEP during training, The Apollo 13 launch vehicle being rolled out, December 1969, The "mailbox" at Mission Control during the Apollo 13 mission, Lunar module Aquarius after it was jettisoned above the Earth, Mission Control celebrates the successful splashdown, The crew on board the USS Iwo Jima following splashdown, The crew speaking with President Nixon shortly after their return, Replica of the lunar plaque with Swigert's name that was to cover the one attached to Aquarius with Mattingly's name, The crater created by the S-IVB's impact, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2010, This article is about the 1970 spaceflight. 19700076776 . [109] Procedures for using the LM in this way had been developed by LM flight controllers after a training simulation for Apollo 10 in which the LM was needed for survival, but could not be powered up in time. [152] The board found no evidence pointing to any other theory of the accident. Crewed missions are in, This page was last edited on 1 May 2021, at 12:52. In the end, Apollo 13 returned to Earth with 12.8 kilograms (28.2 lb) of water remaining. [11], Apollo 13 was to be the second H mission, meant to demonstrate precision lunar landings and explore specific sites on the Moon. [134] Haise could see possible damage to the SM's engine bell, validating Kranz's decision not to use the SPS. In "Delay to Episode 7", the BBC explained that the presenter of the series, medical doctor Kevin Fong, had been called into service. [167], For Apollo 14 and subsequent missions, the oxygen tank was redesigned, the thermostats being upgraded to handle the proper voltage. [91] An experiment to measure the amount of atmospheric electrical phenomena during the ascent to orbit – added after Apollo 12 was struck by lightning – returned data indicating a heightened risk during marginal weather. Starting with Apollo 10, the vehicle's guidance system was designed to shut the engine down in response to chamber pressure excursions. [67] That seismometer was to be calibrated by the impact, after jettison, of the ascent stage of Apollo 13's LM, an object of known mass and velocity impacting at a known location. [151] The sectors of the SM were not airtight from each other, and had there been time for the entire SM to become as pressurized as Sector 4, the force on the CM's heat shield would have separated the two modules. [124], The CSM's electricity came from fuel cells that produced water as a byproduct, but the LM was powered by silver-zinc batteries which did not, so both electrical power and water (needed for equipment cooling as well as drinking) would be critical. Fifty years ago, this month, the whole world watched as the exhausted, underfed and dehydrated Apollo 13 astronauts fought for their lives after … Believing an inspirational teacher was needed, Schmitt arranged for Lovell and Haise to meet his old professor, Caltech's Lee Silver. [46], The Saturn V rocket used to carry Apollo 13 to the Moon was numbered SA-508, and was almost identical to those used on Apollo 8 through 12. [154] The sudden failure of Oxygen Tank 2 compromised Oxygen Tank 1, causing its contents to leak out, possibly through a damaged line or valve, over the next 130 minutes, entirely depleting the SM's oxygen supply. [note 3][34], For Apollo 13, flight directors were: Gene Kranz, White team,[35] (the lead flight director);[36][37] Glynn Lunney, Black team; Milton Windler, Maroon team and Gerry Griffin, Gold team. This was a change from Apollo 11 and 12, on which the LM made the burn to bring it to the lower orbit. 56 hours into the mission, at about 03:06 UT on 14 April 1970
(10:06 PM, April 13 EST), the power fans were turned on within the tank
for the third "cryo-stir" of the mission, a procedure to stir the oxygen slush
inside the tank which would tend to stratify. [26], For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts, known as the support crew, was designated in addition to the prime and backup crews used on projects Mercury and Gemini. [45] In his book, Lovell indicated he chose the name Odyssey because he liked the word and its definition: a long voyage with many changes of fortune. NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes [7] Since success was obtained in 1969 with the sixth Saturn V on Apollo 11, nine rockets remained available for a hoped-for total of ten landings. [111], A key decision was the choice of return path. Apollo 13was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro area. [16], Jack Swigert, the command module pilot (CMP), was 38 years old and held a B.S. We still missed the point on board the carrier Iwo Jima, which picked us up, because the sailors had been as remote from the media as we were. [201] The film won two of the nine Academy Awards it was nominated for, Best Film Editing and Best Sound. [200], The next year, in 1995, a film adaptation of the book, Apollo 13, was released, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Lovell, Bill Paxton as Haise, Kevin Bacon as Swigert, Gary Sinise as Mattingly, Ed Harris as Kranz, and Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Lovell. Exactly 50 years ago, Apollo 13 set off from Earth and for the Moon. The oxygen tank that ruptured during the Apollo 13 mission had been installed in another spacecraft a couple of years earlier and was dropped slightly due to a mistake in handling. [50][51], The LM stages, CM and service module (SM) were received at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in June 1969; the portions of the Saturn V were received in June and July. Apollo 12: Astronaut Alan Bean was struck above the right eyebrow by a 16mm movie … As the CM was being shut down, Lovell copied down its guidance system's orientation information and performed hand calculations to transfer it to the LM's guidance system, which had been turned off; at his request Mission Control checked his figures. They flew in the "Vomit Comet" in simulated microgravity or lunar gravity, including practice in donning and doffing spacesuits. Apollo 13, U.S. spaceflight, launched on April 11, 1970, that suffered an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon, threatening the lives of three astronauts—commander Jim Lovell, lunar module pilot Fred Haise, and command module pilot Jack Swigert—who ultimately saved themselves. [132], Despite the accuracy of the transearth injection, the spacecraft slowly drifted off course, necessitating a correction. Rather than showing the incident from the crew's perspective as in the Apollo 13 feature film, it is instead presented from an Earth-bound perspective of television reporters competing for coverage of the event. Haise checked the status of the fuel cells and found that two of them were dead. [150] Damaged Teflon insulation on the wires to the stirring fan inside Oxygen Tank 2 allowed the wires to short-circuit and ignite this insulation. The FIDOs also proposed other solutions. in aerospace science; he had served in the Air Force and in state Air National Guards and was an engineering test pilot before being selected for the fifth group of astronauts in 1966. [131] Despite all this, the crew voiced few complaints. Temperatures on the heater tube within the tank may have reached 540 °C (1,000 °F), most likely damaging the Teflon insulation. The exposed fan wires shorted
and the teflon insulation caught fire in the pure oxygen environment. [160] The temperature gauge was not designed to read higher than 29 °C (85 °F), so the technician monitoring the procedure detected nothing unusual. The probability of damage from this was low, but it is possible that the fill line assembly was loose and made worse by the fall. [161], At NAR's facility, Oxygen Tank 2 had been originally installed in an oxygen shelf placed in the Apollo 10 service module, SM-106, but which was removed to fix a potential electromagnetic interference problem and another shelf substituted. Jack Lousma, the CAPCOM, sent minor instructions to Swigert, including changing the attitude of the craft to facilitate photography of Comet Bennett. [99], Ninety-five seconds after Swigert activated those switches,[100] the astronauts heard a "pretty large bang", accompanied by fluctuations in electrical power and the firing of the attitude control thrusters. [160] Under the original 1962 specifications, the switches would be rated for 28 volts, but revised specifications issued in 1965 called for 65 volts to allow for quicker tank pressurization at KSC. [193] Budget cuts made such a decision easier, and during the pause after Apollo 13, two missions were canceled, meaning that the program ended with Apollo 17 in December 1972. [66] Apollo 13 also carried a seismometer (known as the Passive Seismic Experiment, or PSE), similar to Apollo 12's, as part of its ALSEP, to be left on the Moon by the astronauts. [144], An estimated 40 million Americans watched Apollo 13's splashdown, carried live on all three networks, with another 30 million watching some portion of the six and one-half hour telecast. [65], Apollo 11 had left a seismometer on the Moon, but the solar-powered unit did not survive its first two-week-long lunar night. ); John F. Clark (Director, Goddard Space Flight Center); Brig. [50] Apollo 13 was originally scheduled for launch on March 12, 1970; in January of that year, NASA announced the mission would be postponed until April 11, both to allow more time for planning and to spread the Apollo missions over a longer period of time. There were worldwide headlines, and people surrounded television sets to get the latest developments, offered by networks who interrupted their regular programming for bulletins. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. It was decided to use the heater to
"boil off" the excess oxygen, requiring 8 hours of 65 volt DC power. They reported that an entire panel was missing from the SM's exterior, the fuel cells above the oxygen tank shelf were tilted, that the high-gain antenna was damaged, and there was a considerable amount of debris elsewhere. The Ars Technica article is a great, free place to start; the book Go, Flight! He took a leave of absence from NASA in 1973 and left the agency to enter politics, being elected to the House of Representatives in 1982, but died of cancer before he could be sworn in. Nobody believes me, but during this six-day odyssey we had no idea what an impression Apollo 13 made on the people of Earth. The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. It was designed by artist Lumen Martin Winter, who based it on a mural he had painted for the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. [52] The plan was to have two Apollo flights per year and was in response to budgetary constraints[53] that had recently seen the cancellation of Apollo 20. [180][181][182], The CM was disassembled for testing and parts remained in storage for years; some were used for a trainer for the Skylab Rescue Mission. "[189], William R. Compton, in his book about the Apollo Program, said of Apollo 13, "Only a heroic effort of real-time improvisation by mission operations teams saved the crew. This was caused by severe pogo oscillations. A routine stir of an oxygen tank ignited damaged wire insulation inside it, causing an explosion that vented the contents of both of the SM's oxygen tanks to space. The two astronauts, and backups Young and Duke, went on a field trip with Silver at their own time and expense. James Lovell, Kranz, and other principals have stated that this film depicted the events of the mission with reasonable accuracy, given that some dramatic license was taken. [169], All electrical wiring in Bay 4 was sheathed in stainless steel. [17] Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot (LMP), was 35 years old. Starting with Apollo 10, the vehicle's guidance system was designed to shut the engine down in response to chamber pressure excursions. The panel's departure exposed the sector to space, snuffing out the fire, and it probably hit the nearby high-gain antenna, disrupting communications to Earth for 1.8 seconds. Almost everything in the CSM required power. The sketches above are taken from the NASA book
"Apollo Expeditions to the Moon", NASA SP-350. Extra propellant was carried as a test, since future J missions to the Moon would require more propellant for their heavier payloads. Each member of the prime crew spent over 400 hours in simulators of the CM and (for Lovell and Haise) of the LM at KSC and at Houston, some of which involved the flight controllers at Mission Control. [162], The Countdown Demonstration Test took place with SM-109 in its place near the top of the Saturn V and began on March 16, 1970. 2 oxygen tank used in Apollo 13 (North American Rockwell;
serial number 10024X-TA0008) had originally been installed in Apollo 10. They flew to Hawaii, where President Richard Nixon awarded them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. [68], Other ALSEP experiments on Apollo 13 included a Heat Flow Experiment (HFE), which would involve drilling two holes 3.0 metres (10 ft) deep. The mission motto, Ex luna, scientia (From the Moon, knowledge), appears. [166] Tests with panels similar to the one that was seen to be missing on SM Sector 4 caused separation of the panel in the test apparatus. [177], Several experiments were completed during Apollo 13, even though the mission did not land on the Moon. However, management felt Shepard needed more training time, as he had only recently resumed active status after surgery for an inner ear disorder and had not flown since 1961. Later helicopter surveys found no radioactive leakage. Lovell retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, entering the private sector. [108], The lunar module had charged batteries and full oxygen tanks for use on the lunar surface, so Kranz directed that the astronauts power up the LM and use it as a "lifeboat"[11] – a scenario anticipated but considered unlikely. In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy challenged his nation to land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade, with a safe return to Earth. [76], For the first time, red stripes were placed on the helmet, arms and legs of the commander's A7L spacesuit. After an intensive investigation, the Apollo 13 Accident Review Board identified the cause of the explosion. [157] The board found that Swigert's activation of the Oxygen Tank 2 fan at the request of Mission Control caused an electric arc that set the tank on fire. [70] The crew was also to downlink bistatic radar observations of the Moon. Apollo 13 turned out to be a very different mission due to an oxygen tank explosion. After some retesting (which did not include filling the tank with liquid oxygen), in November 1968 the shelf was re-installed in SM-109, intended for Apollo 13, which was shipped to KSC in June 1969. Ses membres sont des responsables d'établissement de la NASA (Goddard, Ames), des hauts responsables de la NASA ainsi que l'astronaute Neil Armstrong. Max Ary of the Cosmosphere made it a project to restore Odyssey; it is on display there, in Hutchinson, Kansas. The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture
of oxygen tank no. Episodes began airing for Season 2 starting on March 8, 2020, with episode 1, "Time bomb: Apollo 13", explaining the launch and the explosion. [207] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA did not hold any in-person events during April 2020 for the flight's 50th anniversary, but premiered a new documentary, Apollo 13: Home Safe on April 10, 2020. [183], Apollo 13 was called a "successful failure" by Lovell. goes much deeper into the controllers' history throughout the early years of NASA. For the film based upon it, see, Seventh crewed flight in the Apollo program, which failed to land on the Moon following an in-flight incident, Swigert and Lovell reporting the incident on April 14, 1970 [2:59] ", Astronauts and key Mission Control personnel, Popular culture, media and 50th anniversary. That trainer was subsequently displayed at the Kentucky Science Center. Document ID. The structure to fly the flag on the airless Moon was improved from Apollo 12's. General Walter R. Hedrick Jr. (Director of Space, DCS/RED, Hqs., USAF); Vincent L. Johnson (Deputy Associate Administrator-Engineering, Office of Space Science and Applications); Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here,", Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, "Remembering Chris Kraft: Pioneer of Mission Control", "Apollo 13: The moon-mission that dodged disaster", "50 years ago: NASA names Apollo 11 crew", "13 things that saved Apollo 13, Part 3: Charlie Duke's measles", "Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell shares stories about Tom Hanks, Ron Howard", "Namesake Brings Personal Touch to Lovell Center Fete", "Day 1: Earth orbit and translunar injection", "Lunar Landing Training Vehicle NASA 952", "Water Gun, Helmet Feedport, In-Suit Drink Bag, and Food Stick", "Mitigating Pogo on Liquid-Fueled Rockets", "13 things that saved Apollo 13, Part 5: Unexplained shutdown of the Saturn V center engine", "Day 1: Transposition, Docking and Extraction", "Apollo lunar landing launch window: The controlling factors and constraints", "Astronauts Beat Air Crisis By Do-It-Yourself Gadget", "Biological effects of space radiation and development of effective countermeasures", "Generation Constellation Learns about Apollo 13", "Power engineer: Video interview with Apollo astronaut Ken Mattingly", "Bernard Etkin helped avert Apollo 13 tragedy", "Impact Sites of Apollo LM Ascent and SIVB Stages", "Did Ron Howard exaggerate the reentry scene in the movie Apollo 13? [62] The two astronauts wore their spacesuits for some 20 walk-throughs of EVA procedures, including sample gathering and use of tools and other equipment. [15] At the time of Apollo 13, Lovell was the NASA astronaut with the most time in space, with 572 hours over the three missions. In 1965, the CM had undergone many improvements that included raising the permissible voltage to the heaters in the oxygen tanks from 28 to 65 volts DC. Thus, it was built to withstand the heat of reentry into the Earth's atmosphere rather than pollute the air with plutonium in the event of an aborted mission. [35] The CAPCOMs (the person in Mission Control, during the Apollo program an astronaut, who was responsible for voice communications with the crew)[38] for Apollo 13 were Kerwin, Brand, Lousma, Young and Mattingly. [70] A Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment (CPLEE) measured the protons and electrons of solar origin reaching the Moon. [98][99], The pressure sensor in one of the SM's oxygen tanks had earlier appeared to be malfunctioning, so Sy Liebergot (the EECOM, in charge of monitoring the CSM's electrical system) requested that the stirring fans in the tanks be activated. [137] Odyssey regained radio contact and splashed down safely in the South Pacific Ocean, 21°38′24″S 165°21′42″W / 21.64000°S 165.36167°W / -21.64000; -165.36167 (Apollo 13 splashdown),[138] southeast of American Samoa and 6.5 km (3.5 nmi) from the recovery ship, USS Iwo Jima. [91], The crew settled in for the three-day trip to Fra Mauro. The departure from a free-return trajectory meant that if no further burns were performed, Apollo 13 would miss Earth on its return trajectory, rather than intercept it, as with a free return. [111] The response to the accident has been repeatedly called, "NASA's finest hour";[185][186][187][188] it is still viewed that way. [122][123] NASA engineers referred to the improvised device as "the mailbox". Develop man's capability to work in the lunar environment. [note 1][9], Even before the first U.S. astronaut entered space in 1961, planning for a centralized facility to communicate with the spacecraft and monitor its performance had begun, for the most part the brainchild of Christopher C. Kraft Jr., who became NASA's first flight director. At the end of their week together, Lovell made Silver their geology mentor, who would be extensively involved in the geology planning for Apollo 13. Times given are in Ground Elapsed Time (G.E.T. [11] Lovell, looking out the window, reported "a gas of some sort" venting into space, making it clear that there was a serious problem. [98] Haise was completing the shutdown of the LM after testing its systems while Lovell stowed the TV camera. [126] The crew's ration was 0.2 liters (6.8 fl oz) of water per person per day; the three astronauts lost a total of 14 kilograms (31 lb) among them, and Haise developed a urinary tract infection. As they had been told not to discharge their urine to space to avoid disturbing the trajectory, they had to store it in bags. INTRODUCTION It became clear in the course of the Board's review that the acci- dent during the Apollo 13 mission was initiated in the service module cryogenic oxygen tank no. [61], The plan was to devote the first of the two four-hour lunar surface extravehicular activities (EVAs) to setting up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) group of scientific instruments; during the second, Lovell and Haise would investigate Cone crater, near the planned landing site. [39], The Apollo 13 mission insignia depicts the Greek god of the Sun, Apollo, with three horses pulling his chariot across the face of the Moon, and the Earth seen in the distance. The LM's stock of canisters, meant to accommodate two astronauts for 45 hours on the Moon, was not enough to support three astronauts for the return journey to Earth. After discussion among NASA and the contractors, attempts to empty the tank resumed on March 27. [40][41], On the patch, the mission number appeared in Roman numerals as Apollo XIII. This heating had been approved by Lovell and Mattingly of the prime crew, as well as by NASA managers and engineers. [90] Ground controllers then sent the third stage on a course to impact the Moon in range of the Apollo 12 seismometer, which it did just over three days into the mission. [184] Mike Massimino, a Space Shuttle astronaut, stated that Apollo 13 "showed teamwork, camaraderie and what NASA was really made of". [3] The S-IC stage's engines were rated to generate 440,000 newtons (100,000 lbf) less total thrust than Apollo 12's, though they remained within specifications. This fire
rapidly heated and increased the pressure of the oxygen inside the tank, and
may have spread along the wires to the electrical conduit in the side of the tank,
which weakened and ruptured under the pressure, causing the no. The lower picture shows the Apollo 13
Service Module and the location of the oxygen tanks relative to
the other systems. This "PC+2" burn would take place two hours after pericynthion, the closest approach to the Moon. The seventh and final episode was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are various other minute contradictions of history and the film is prey to a large number of factual errors due to the large volume of documentary footage/evidence from the actual event. This probably damaged the thermostatically controlled switches on the
heater, designed for only 28 volts. [114][note 4], While preparing for the burn the crew was told that the S-IVB had impacted the Moon as planned, leading Lovell to quip, "Well, at least something worked on this flight. The internal fill line was not known to be damaged, and this tank was later
installed in Apollo 13. He was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and had been a naval aviator and test pilot before being selected for the second group of astronauts in 1962; he flew with Frank Borman in Gemini 7 in 1965 and Buzz Aldrin in Gemini 12 the following year before flying in Apollo 8 in 1968, the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon. The escaping gas was probably enough by itself to blow out the aluminum exterior panel to Sector 4, but combustion products generated as nearby insulation ignited would have added to the pressure. [168] An emergency supply of 19 litres (5 US gal) of water was stored in the CM, and an emergency battery, identical to those that powered the LM's descent stage, was placed in the SM. Nonetheless, the switches Beech used were not rated for 65 volts. [128] The crew stayed overnight on the ship and flew to Pago Pago, American Samoa, the next day. [27] Usually low in seniority, they assembled the mission's rules, flight plan, and checklists, and kept them updated;[28][29] for Apollo 13, they were Vance D. Brand, Jack Lousma and either William Pogue or Joseph Kerwin. [120] The crew then shut down most LM systems to conserve consumables. 4 cover. The crewmembers of the Apollo 13 mission step aboard the USS Iwo Jima, after splashdown and recovery operations in the South Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970. The resulting crater, roughly 30 meters in diameter, is clearly visible in a new LRO image. These would be needed for the final hours of the mission, but the remaining fuel cell, already starved for oxygen, was drawing from the surge tank. No Apollo astronaut flew without life insurance, but the policies were paid for by private third parties whose involvement was not publicized. [146] The United States Senate on April 14 passed a resolution urging businesses to pause at 9:00 pm local time that evening to allow for employee prayer. [163][164] Replacement of the tank would have delayed the mission by at least a month. [60], Concerned about how close Apollo 11's LM, Eagle, had come to running out of propellant during its lunar descent, mission planners decided that beginning with Apollo 13, the CSM would bring the LM to the low orbit from which the landing attempt would commence. [14], Apollo 13's mission commander, Jim Lovell, was 42 years old at the time of the spaceflight, which was his fourth and last. [63] Despite the fact that four of the five LLTVs and similar Lunar Landing Research Vehicles crashed during the course of the Apollo program, mission commanders considered flying them invaluable experience. We've had a Main B Bus undervolt. [171], On February 5, 1971, Apollo 14's LM, Antares, landed on the Moon with astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell aboard, near Fra Mauro, the site Apollo 13 had been intended to explore. The high temperature emptied the tank, but
also resulted in serious damage to the teflon insulation
on the electrical wires to the power fans within the tank.