Apollo 13 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Apollo 13
	The Apollo 13 crew took this photo of the Moon from the Lunar Module.
Mission type	Manned lunar landing attempt
Operator	NASA
Mission duration	5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 41 seconds
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Apollo CSM-109; Apollo LM-7;
Manufacturer	CSM: North American Rockwell; LM: Grumman;
Launch mass	101,261 pounds (45,931 kg)
Landing mass	11,133 pounds (5,050 kg)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	James A. Lovell Jr.; John L. Swigert Jr.; Fred W. Haise Jr.;
Callsign	CM: Odyssey; LM: Aquarius;
Start of mission
Launch date	April 11, 1970, 19:13:00 UTC
Rocket	Saturn V SA-508
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Recovered by	USS Iwo Jima
Landing date	April 17, 1970, 18:07:41 UTC
Landing site	South Pacific Ocean; 21°38′24″S 165°21′42″W / 21.64°S 165.36167°W
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Cislunar
Flyby of Moon (orbit and landing aborted)
Closest approach	April 15, 1970, 00:21:00 UTC
Distance	254 kilometers (137 nmi)
Docking with LM
Docking date	April 11, 1970, 22:32:08 UTC
Undocking date	April 17, 1970, 16:43:00 UTC
	; Left to right Lovell, Swigert, Haise, 12 days after their return. Apollo program ← Apollo 12 Apollo 14 →

Apollo 13 was the seventh mission of NASA's Project Apollo and the third manned lunar-lander mission. The flight was commanded by Jim Lovell. The other astronauts on board were Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.

The craft was launched successfully toward the Moon, but two days after launch a faulty oxygen tank exploded, and the Service Module became damaged, causing a loss of oxygen and electrical power. There was a very large chance that the astronauts would die before they could return to Earth. They were very short of oxygen. Oxygen is not just used to breathe; on the Apollo spacecraft it was used in a device called a Fuel cell to generate electricity. So they conserved their remaining air by turning off almost all their electrical equipment, for example heaters. It became very cold in the spacecraft.

In order to stay alive the astronauts also had to move into the Apollo Lunar Module and make it work as a sort of "lifeboat".

When they approached the Earth they were not sure that their parachutes, needed to slow the Command Module down, would work. The parachutes were thrown out by small explosive charges that were fired by batteries. The cold could have made the batteries fail, in which case the parachutes would not work and the Command Module would hit the ocean so fast that all aboard would be killed.

The flight

Apollo blasted off on the April 11, 1970 at 19:13 UTC from Cape Canaveral and went into temporary low Earth orbit. Two hours later they fired the rocket motor again to go towards the Moon. They wanted to land at Fra Mauro. Despite the hardships, the crew made it back to Earth. Though the crew did not land on the Moon, the flight became very well known.

Some people regarded it as a failure because they did not land on the Moon. However, others thought it was possibly the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations' (NASA's) greatest accomplishment in returning three men in a very damaged spacecraft back to Earth safely.

Coming up to re-entry, it was thought that the electrical equipment would short circuit because the water in the astronauts' breath had turned back into a liquid all over the computers. However, the electronics were fine.

Books were written about the event, for example one by Jim Lovell, the commander of the mission. A movie was also made about it, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks.

Related pages

Images for kids

Mission Operations Control Room during the TV broadcast just before the Apollo 13 accident. Astronaut Fred Haise is shown on the screen.
Swigert, Lovell and Haise the day before launch
Apollo 13 flown silver Robbins medallion
CSM-109 Odyssey in the Operations and Checkout Building
Lovell practices deploying the flag
Lovell (left) and Haise during geology training in Hawaii, January 1970
Haise practices removing the fuel capsule from its transport cask mounted on the LM. The real cask sank unopened into the Pacific Ocean with its radioactive contents.
Apollo 13 launches from Kennedy Space Center, April 11, 1970
This depiction of a direct abort (from a 1966 planning report) contemplates returning from a point much earlier in the mission, and closer to Earth, than where the Apollo 13 accident occurred.
The Apollo 13 crew photographed the Moon out of the Lunar Module.
Swigert with the rig improvised to adapt the CM's lithium hydroxide canisters for use in the LM
Lovell tries to rest in the frigid spacecraft
Apollo 13 splashes down in the South Pacific on April 17, 1970
Oxygen tank number 2, showing heater and thermostat unit
President Richard Nixon awarding the Apollo 13 astronauts the Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Apollo 13 command module Odyssey on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas
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