Why is apollo 13 famous

So when that question came up from the reporter, I thought to myself, because management was right behind us, here was the perfect opportunity to put them on the wall and say yes, because they had not talked to us, the 13, just 11 and I was about ready to say something like that when, out in the audience, I saw a hand go up.

Then I saw it go down like this. Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. View our Privacy Policy. By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. Login or Register Customer Service. RISE —. PHASE —. Tonight's Sky — Change location. US state, Canadian province, or country. Tonight's Sky — Select location. Tonight's Sky — Enter coordinates. UTC Offset:.

Picture of the Day Image Galleries. Watch : Mining the Moon for rocket fuel. Queen guitarist Brian May and David Eicher launch new astronomy book. Last chance to join our Costa Rica Star Party! Learn about the Moon in a great new book New book chronicles the space program. Dave's Universe Year of Pluto. Groups Why Join? Astronomy Day. The Complete Star Atlas. Swigert, Lovell, and Haise left to right enjoy a brief moment of relaxation April 9, , two days before taking off for the Moon.

To the average American living in , the space program had become rather humdrum. Many wondered whether fixing problems on Earth demanded more attention than exploring the Moon. As Apollo 13 pulls away from Earth, the astronauts catch this view of home and a cold front crossing the Pacific Ocean. Haise appears on the giant screen. Less than 10 minutes after the broadcast finished, an oxygen tank onboard exploded.

Lovell: Yeah. First of all, we were getting all squared away to check things out. During the countdown demonstration test, which was two weeks before the flight, we had the spacecraft loaded with fuel and things of this nature.

The test was completed — everything worked fine for launching the vehicle. The rugged farside of the Moon holds few of the large maria seen on the nearside. Astronomy: Yeah. In retrospect, it sounds quite interesting. Lovell: Yes, we did. Lovell: Well, before I saw that, I saw that we lost two out of three fuel cells. I knew that one fuel cell would give us enough electrical power to just get us around the Moon and back home again.

But then I looked up at the instrument panel and I saw the quantity gauges of the two fuel cells in the service module, and one fuel was zero, and the other fuel cell started to go down ever so slightly, but something you would never see in the normal uses of oxygen on a flight to the Moon.

Swigert at right and Lovell off camera, to the left fiddle with some of the temporary hoses and other gear they needed to convert the lunar module into a lifeboat for the trip home. How quickly did Mission Control figure out how to get you back onto that free-return trajectory and to speed the spacecraft up to get you home early? Lovell: It took a little while, but that was the first thing they thought of. Lovell catches some shut-eye during the long, nerve-wracking journey back to Earth.

One consequence of the free-return trajectory was that you set a record for the farthest humans have ever been from Earth. Did you realize that at the time or were you too preoccupied with the tasks at hand?

We let the apogee take us back. To the relief of nearly everyone on Earth, the Apollo 13 command module splashed down safely in the South Pacific Ocean on April I was curious how the communications between you and Mission Control worked out. You were obviously working on the immediate crisis, while they were planning ahead on how to get you safely home.

What was the dynamic like, talking to them and working things out? Lovell: It was pretty good. In the beginning, though … they knew we had to get back on the free-return.

So they were debating what to do … as we were going towards the Moon. But we talked back and forth. Astronomy: Is it true that Jack and Fred were captivated with taking photos of the lunar farside? He got an infection, a bladder infection. He got the chills and things like that. I tried to keep him warm. But he hung in there, fortunately. Jim Lovell chatted with Astronomy magazine in August about the Apollo 13 mission.

Astronomy: On a somewhat lighter note: What was the experience like working on the Apollo 13 film and appearing in it, as well as your association with making the film?

Lovell: It was kind of interesting. This is an unusual flight. I mean, look what happened. I have to tell you an interesting story. We came back. Then, they tried to forget about it. They wanted to go on to Apollo 14 and everything like that. The crew also rationed water to make sure Aquarius — operating for longer than it was designed — would have enough liquid to cool its hardware down.

And Aquarius was pretty cramped as it was designed to hold two people, not three. On Earth, flight director Gene Kranz pulled his shift of controllers off regular rotation to focus on managing consumables like water and power. Other mission control teams helped the crew with its daily activities. Spacecraft manufacturers worked around the clock to support NASA and the crew. It was a rough journey home. The entire spaceflight crew lost weight, and Haise developed a kidney infection.

But the small vessel protected and carried the crew long enough to reach Earth's atmosphere. In the hours before splashdown, the exhausted crew scrambled back over to the Odyssey powered it up. The craft had essentially been in a cold water soak for days, and could have shorted out, but thanks to safeguards put in place after the Apollo 1 disaster, there were no issues. Numerous design changes were made to the Apollo service module and command module on subsequent missions in the Apollo program.

As for the astronauts, Haise was assigned to command the Apollo 19 moon mission. However, it and two other missions were canceled after NASA's budget was cut. He later piloted the space shuttle Enterprise during its test flights. In , Swigert was elected to Congress in his home state of Colorado. However, during the campaign, he was diagnosed with bone cancer, and he died before he could be sworn in.

In , Lovell and journalist Jeffrey Kluger co-wrote a book about Lovell's spaceflight career that primarily focused on the events of the Apollo 13 mission. The agency gave the movie crew access to the s-era Mission Control in Houston to reconstruct the site as a set, and also let the actor "astronauts" fly aboard NASA's Vomit Comet airplane to simulate weightlessness. Lovell made a cameo at the end of the film as the captain of the U.

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