Apollo 13 facts for kids
The Apollo 13 crew took this photo of the Moon from the Lunar Module.
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| Mission type | Manned lunar landing attempt |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| Mission duration | 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 41 seconds |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft |
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| Manufacturer |
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| Launch mass | 101,261 pounds (45,931 kg) |
| Landing mass | 11,133 pounds (5,050 kg) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | |
| Callsign |
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| 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 / 21.64000°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. |
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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.
Astronauts and key Mission Control personnel
Apollo 13's mission commander, Jim Lovell, was 42 years old at the time of the spaceflight, which was his fourth and last. 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. At the time of Apollo 13, Lovell was the NASA astronaut with the most time in space, with 572 hours over the three missions.
Jack Swigert, the command module pilot (CMP), was 38 years old and held a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. 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.
Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot (LMP), was 35 years old. He held a B.S. in aeronautical engineering, had been a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and was a civilian research pilot for NASA when he was selected as a Group 5 astronaut. Apollo 13 was Swigert's and Haise's only spaceflight.
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
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Mission Operations Control Room during the TV broadcast just before the Apollo 13 accident. Astronaut Fred Haise is shown on the screen.
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Apollo 13 flown silver Robbins medallion
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CSM-109 Odyssey in the Operations and Checkout Building
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Lovell practices deploying the flag
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Lovell (left) and Haise during geology training in Hawaii, January 1970
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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.
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Apollo 13 launches from Kennedy Space Center, April 11, 1970
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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.
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The Apollo 13 crew photographed the Moon out of the Lunar Module.
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Swigert with the rig improvised to adapt the CM's lithium hydroxide canisters for use in the LM
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Lovell tries to rest in the frigid spacecraft
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Apollo 13 splashes down in the South Pacific on April 17, 1970
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Oxygen tank number 2, showing heater and thermostat unit
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President Richard Nixon awarding the Apollo 13 astronauts the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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The Apollo 13 command module Odyssey on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas
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Lovell practices deploying the ALSEP during training
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The Apollo 13 launch vehicle being rolled out, December 1969
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The "mailbox" at Mission Control during the Apollo 13 mission
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Lunar module Aquarius after it was jettisoned above the Earth
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Mission Control celebrates the successful splashdown
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The crew on board the USS Iwo Jima following splashdown
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The crew speaking with President Nixon shortly after their return
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Replica of the lunar plaque with Swigert's name that was to cover the one attached to Aquarius with Mattingly's name
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The crater created by the S-IVB's impact, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2010
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