Sincerely,
Richard Nixon.”
For a brief moment Apollo 13 put the hassles of money and budgets and politics aside as people followed the progress of a mission where sheer guts and determination, teamwork and comradeship, ingenuity and skill brought the crew safely home. No doubt luck was a large factor in the equation. A triskaidekaphobic person would freak out at this list of thirteens � it was the 13th Apollo mission, launched at 1313 hours spacecraft time, the explosion occurred on April 13, 13:08 hours Honeysuckle Creek time, with 13 nations offering to provide rescue ships or aircraft. And stretching credibility a bit the astronauts first names of James, Fred, and Jack add up to 13 letters, the launch date of 4/11/70 add up to 13 from pad 39 which is 3 x 13. Even German Measles has 13 letters. Not surprisingly the Horoscope for Aquarius from the Houston Post of April 13 1970 said �Do surprises turn you on? Then this is the day for the unexpected.�
Was Apollo 13 good luck or bad luck? Probably good luck because it brings up a lot of �What ifs...?� For instance, what if the explosion had happened while Lovell and Haise were on the lunar surface..........!!?
Lovell said,
�To get Apollo 13 home required a lot of innovation. Most of the material written about our mission described the ground-based activities, however I would be remiss not to state that it really was the teamwork between the ground and the flight crew that resulted in a successful return. Some people would call the Apollo 13 mission a $375 million failure. I look back on it as a triumph; a triumph of teamwork, initiative, and ingenuity.
Nobody believes me, but during this six day odyssey we had no idea what an impression Apollo 13 made on the people of Earth. We never dreamed a billion people were following us on television and radio, and reading about us in banner headlines of every newspaper published. 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. Only when we reached Honolulu did we comprehend our impact.�
For fun, Grumman, the builders of the Lunar Module, sent a bill for $US400,000 to North American Rockwell for towing the Command and Service Module 482,800 kilometres back home!
Jack Swigert said after the mission,
�I knew that no matter how dark the situation looked, we had a lot of help from the ground. I didn�t come back from this mission with less confidence in the goals of the space program. I came back with more.�
Chris Kraft:
�I think Apollo 13 was a classic example of what the ground flight operations was all about. It proved that the ground was worthwhile. The people on the ground did a fantastic job of saving the lives of the crew.� That ground crew included the tracking stations, connecting Mission Control with the spacecraft.
President Nixon summed up this dramatic odyssey with:
�The three astronauts did not reach the moon, but they reached the hearts of millions of people in America and in the world.�
References:
Tracking Apollo to the Moon | – Hamish Lindsay |
Apollo 13 | – Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger |
Flight | – Chris Kraft |
Failure is not an Option | – Gene Kranz |
– Sy Liebergot |
Interviews with:
Chris Kraft | Bill Peters | Nevil Eyre |
Gene Kranz | Joe Kerwin | John Mitchell |
Glynn Lunney | Bill Wood | Bruce Window |
Fred Haise | Don Gray | Kevyn Westbrook |
Jerry Bostick | Tom Reid | Trevor Gray |
John Aaron | Mike Dinn | Wilfred Laing |
Sy Liebergot | John Saxon |
The text has been checked by Chris Kraft and Jim Lovell. -----------------------------------
Illustrations sourced by Hamish Lindsay and Colin Mackellar.
Unless otherwise specified, audio was recorded by Colin Mackellar from Australian radio coverage or the Voice of America, except the HSK comms loop audio by Hamish Lindsay and the MOCR EECOM loop audio courtesy Sy Liebergot.
Audio selected and edited by CM.
Frames from Apollo 13 film and video selected and processed by CM with thanks to Mark Gray at Spacecraft Films .
Back to the main Apollo 13 section .
There is a moment early in “Apollo 13” when astronaut Jim Lovell is taking some press on a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and he brags that they have a computer “that fits in one room and can send out millions of instructions.” And I’m thinking to myself, hell, I’m writing this review on a better computer than the one that got us to the moon.
“Apollo 13” inspires many reflections, and one of them is that America’s space program was achieved with equipment that would look like tin cans today. Like Lindbergh, who crossed the Atlantic in the first plane he could string together that might make it, we went to the moon the moment we could, with the tools that were at hand.
Today, with new alloys, engines, fuels, computers and technology, it would be safer and cheaper – but we have lost the will.
“Apollo 13” never really states its theme, except perhaps in one sentence of narration at the end, but the whole film is suffused with it: The space program was a really extraordinary thing, something to be proud of, and those who went into space were not just “heroes,” which is a cliché, but brave and resourceful.
Those qualities were never demonstrated more dramatically than in the flight of the 13th Apollo mission in April 1970, when an oxygen tank exploded en route to the moon. The three astronauts on board – Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert – were faced with the possibility of becoming marooned in space. Their oxygen could run out, they could be poisoned by carbon dioxide accumulations, or they could freeze to death. If somehow they were able to return to the Earth’s atmosphere, they had to enter at precisely the right angle.
Too steep an entry, and they would be incinerated; too shallow, and they would skip off the top of the atmosphere like a stone on a pond, and fly off forever into space.
Ron Howard’s film of this mission is directed with a single-mindedness and attention to detail that makes it riveting. He doesn’t make the mistake of adding cornball little subplots to popularize the material; he knows he has a great story, and he tells it in a docudrama that feels like it was filmed on location in outer space.
So convincing are the details, indeed, that I went back to look at “For All Mankind,” the great 1989 documentary directed by ex-astronaut Al Reinert , who co-wrote “Apollo 13.” It was an uncanny experience, like looking at the origins of the current picture.
Countless details were exactly the same: the astronauts boarding the spacecraft, the lift-off, the inside of the cabin, the view from space, the chilling sight of their oxygen supply venting into space, even the little tape recorder floating in free-fall, playing country music.
All these images are from the documentary, all look almost exactly the same in the movie, and that is why Howard has been at pains to emphasize that every shot in “Apollo 13” is new. No documentary footage was used. The special effects – models, animation, shots where the actors were made weightless by floating inside a descending airplane – have re-created the experience exactly.
The astronauts are played by Tom Hanks (Lovell), Bill Paxton (Haise) and Kevin Bacon (Swigert). The pilot originally scheduled for the Apollo 13 mission was Ken Mattingly ( Gary Sinise ), who was grounded because he had been exposed to the measles. The key figure at Houston Mission Control is Gene Kranz (Ed Harris). Clean-cut, crew-cut, wearing white collars even in space, the astronauts had been built up in the public mind as supermen, but as Tom Wolfe’s book and Phil Kaufman’s movie “ The Right Stuff ” revealed, they were more likely to be hot-shot test pilots (with the exception of John Glenn ) than straight arrows.
The movie begins with the surprise selection of Lovell’s group to crew Apollo 13. We meet members of their families, particularly Marilyn Lovell (Kathleen Quinlan), we follow some of the training, and then the movie follows the ill-fated mission, in space and on the ground. Kranz, the Harris character, chain-smoking Camels, masterminds the ground effort to figure out how (and if) Apollo 13 can ever return.
A scheme is dreamed up to shut down power in the space capsule and move the astronauts into the lunar exploratory module, as a sort of temporary lifeboat. The lunar lander will be jettisoned at the last minute, and the main capsule’s weakened batteries may have enough power left to allow the crew to return alive.
Meanwhile, the problem is to keep them from dying in space.
A scrubber to clean carbon dioxide from the capsule’s air supply is jerry-built out of materials on board (and you can see a guy holding one just like it in “For All Mankind”). And you begin to realize, as the astronauts swing around the dark side of the moon and head for home, that, given the enormity of the task of returning to Earth, their craft and equipment is only a little more adequate than the rocket sled in which Evil Knievel proposed to hurtle across Snake River Canyon at about the same time.
Ron Howard has become a director who specializes in stories involving large groups of characters: “Cocoon,” “ Parenthood ,” “ Backdraft ,” “ The Paper .” Those were all films that paid attention to the individual human stories involved; they were a triumph of construction, indeed, in keeping many stories afloat and interesting.
With “Apollo 13,” he correctly decides that the story is in the mission. There is a useful counterpoint in the scenes involving Lovell’s wife, waiting fearfully on the ground. (She tells their son, “Something broke on your daddy’s spaceship, and he’s going to have to turn around before he even gets to the moon.”) But Howard adds no additional side stories, no little parallel dramas, as a lesser director might have.
This is a powerful story, one of the year’s best films, told with great clarity and remarkable technical detail, and acted without pumped-up histrionics. It’s about men trained to do a job, and doing a better one than anyone could have imagined. The buried message is: When we dialed down the space program, we lost something crucial to our vision. When I was a kid, they used to predict that by the year 2000, you’d be able to go to the moon. Nobody ever thought to predict that you’d be able to, but nobody would bother.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
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The ending of Apollo 13 Survival is a tale of triumph. Against all odds, the three astronauts, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert and Jim Lovell, safely return to Earth. Released on Netflix on September 5, 2024, this documentary dives into the events of the 1970 NASA mission that nearly ended in disaster.
In the final moments, the film shows the astronauts' life-or-death struggle. They navigate through the endless dangers of space, relying on NASA’s ground team. After days of dwindling oxygen, energy shortages and harrowing conditions, they splash down into the Pacific Ocean. This miraculous return concludes the tense story that Apollo 13 Survival brings to life.
The film’s ending emphasizes one central theme: survival in the face of disaster. Through this, we see the bravery of the astronauts and the ingenuity of NASA engineers.
The official synopsis of the film states:
"Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home."
In Apollo 13 Survival , the closing scenes focus on the astronauts' race to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The crew gets stranded after a life-threatening oxygen tank explosion.
Their lifeboat is the lunar module, as they have low power and oxygen. As NASA's engineers and astronauts design untested maneuvers to return the spacecraft home, the ending emphasizes their amazing cooperation.
When the group returns to Earth's atmosphere, their accuracy and daring shine through. Against all the odds, they eventually make it.
The story begins with Apollo 13’s journey to the Moon . After a successful launch on April 11, 1970, an oxygen tank explodes two days into the mission, 210,000 miles from Earth. This explosion causes a critical failure in the spacecraft’s power and life-support systems.
The crew, originally bound for the Moon, must now focus on survival. NASA’s ground team quickly assembles solutions to save the astronauts, who must endure freezing temperatures, limited air and isolation in space. This moment transforms their lunar mission into a desperate fight for survival .
During the crisis, the astronauts and NASA’s engineers make several key decisions. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, the astronauts survive on minimal power. At mission control, NASA experts design and test emergency procedures using makeshift materials.
One notable sequence shows engineers creating a filter from cardboard and a sock to remove excess carbon dioxide. These innovative solutions highlight the collaboration between the crew and ground control as they continuously communicate through radio transmissions.
As the astronauts approach Earth, tension mounts. The most critical moment of the mission occurs during the re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft has to enter at the right angle to prevent bouncing off into space or burning up.
Any error would bring about near certain death. As the spacecraft vanishes from radar for the expected four-minute blackout, NASA's ground-based team clutches their collective breaths. The astronauts are eventually found to be alive when contact is restored, and their spacecraft safely settles in the Pacific Ocean, where a recovery crew picks them up.
Apollo 13 Survival chronicles the almost catastrophic NASA lunar expedition.
Damage to the spacecraft results from a life-threatening explosion the three astronauts on Apollo 13 encounter . Originally scheduled to land on the Moon, the objective quickly becomes a desperate survival struggle.
The astronauts have to navigate harsh temperatures, limited power and lethal space junk. NASA's ground team helps them safely return to Earth, though. The story of the movie emphasizes human creativity, tenacity and cooperation that helps the crew avoid certain death.
Directed by Peter Middleton, Apollo 13 Survival was released on Netflix in September 2024. Middleton’s direction combines archival footage, interviews and reconstructions to narrate the story.
With rare access to NASA’s archives, Middleton delivers a tense and faithful portrayal of the events. The film is a mix of documentary storytelling and cinematic recreation, blending past and present visuals to create an immersive experience for the viewer.
Although mostly a documentary, Apollo 13 Survival includes interviews with mission leaders. The main protagonists of the narrative are Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert; their voices via archive recordings, help vividly depict the incidents.
The documentary also includes interviews with NASA engineers and families of the astronauts, augmenting the expedition's personal stakes. These actual people act as the characters and narrators of their own survival tales.
Apollo 13 Survival is an story of survival despite insurmountable circumstances. The conclusion, in which the astronauts safely make a return to Earth, is a victory of human creativity and tenacity.
From the first oxygen tank explosion to the perilous re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the narrative stresses NASA's and the astronauts' cooperative efforts.
Combining archive video, interviews and dramatizations, the film pays homage to individuals who made Apollo 13 among the most well-known survival tales in history.
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Apollo 13 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, by a giant Saturn V launch vehicle and only minutes later was inserted into orbit around Earth.About 2.5 hours after launch, the still-attached S IVB third stage was reignited to provide the final boost toward the Moon.The transposition maneuver (removing the lunar module, code-named Aquarius, from the S IVB adapter) was carried out ...
Apollo 13: The Successful Failure. On April 11, 1970, the powerful Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 13 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center propelling astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert on what was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. Unfortunately, the mission to explore the Fra Mauro region of the Moon ...
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the Apollo Space program (1961‑1975) and the third lunar landing mission, though the three astronauts aboard never reached the moon and scrambled to ...
The Apollo 13 mission, often referred to as NASA's "successful failure," remains one of the most dramatic and inspiring stories in the history of space exploration. Launched on April 11, 1970, the mission was intended to be the third manned lunar landing. However, an oxygen tank explosion two days into the mission forced the astronauts to abort ...
Apollo 13: The Successful Failure. On April 11, 1970, the powerful Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 13 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center propelling astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert on what was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. Unfortunately, the mission to explore the Fra Mauro region of the Moon ...
Apollo 13 (April 11-17, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) ruptured two days into the mission, disabling its electrical and life-support system.
Using those procedures, Swigert and Lovell powered up the command module, and Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific on April 17, 1970. The mission was almost immediately dubbed a ...
So Apollo 13, which lifted off fifty years ago this week, on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 PM military time, went off as planned—until on April 13 it all went to hell, when an explosion in an oxygen ...
The mission's spent upper stage successfully impacted the moon. During the first two days, the crew ran into a couple of minor surprises, but generally Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the program. At 46 hours, 43 minutes Joe Kerwin, the capsule communicator, or Capcom, on duty, said, "The spacecraft is in real good shape ...
The third mission planned by the United States to land astronauts on the Moon was Apollo 13, which launched on April 11, 1970. The mission nearly ended in tragedy. An explosion and power failure partially disabled the spacecraft's command module, Odyssey, as it neared the Moon. The astronauts were able to employ their lunar module, Aquarius ...
Apollo 13 crew. The Apollo 13 astronauts were commander James Lovell, lunar module pilot Fred Haise, and command module pilot John "Jack" Swigert. At age 42, Lovell was the world's most traveled ...
Apollo 13 was to be the third mission sent from the Apollo Project to land on the Moon. An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks caused the spacecraft to become crippled during the flight and the crew were forced to orbit the Moon and return to the Earth without landing. The Apollo 13 mission was launched on Saturday afternoon, April 11, 1970 ...
CNN —. On the evening of April 13, 50 years ago, NASA astronauts James Lovell Jr., John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. were about to go to sleep for the night in the Apollo 13 command module ...
Working Out the Problems of Apollo 13. 50 years later, two Georgia Tech engineering alumni reflect on their experience in Apollo 13's mission control. "Houston we've had a problem" - we all know those infamous words that were transmitted from the crew of Apollo 13 back to mission control at 02:07:55:35 into the flight that took off on ...
Decent Essays. 1397 Words. 6 Pages. Open Document. Apollo 13 The Apollo 13 mission was a significant historical event, because of the dangerous repercussions that followed the explosion of the oxygen tank on Apollo 13. The story in which the astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise surviving these errors during the flight is truly incredible.
Apollo 13 will be launched in the April launch window to the Moon. The launch window for the chosen day, 11 April, opens at 14:13:00 EST which is exactly the planned moment of their launch. ... An Apollo Flight Journal essay on the onboard cameras can be accessed here. The first stage separation occurred at 36.7 nautical miles, or 68.0 km of ...
On April 13, 1970, the oxygen fuel tank in Apollo 13 exploded, causing pressure in two of its three fuel cells to plummet. The astronauts were three-quarters of the way to the moon and speeding away from Earth at 2000 mph.
Apollo 13 Essay example. Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crewmembers aboard the ship were James A. Lovell Jr., John L. Swigert Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr. Before the launch, there had been a few problems. Thomas K. Mattingly was supposed to fly on the Apollo 13 but he was exposed to the measles.
Get a custom case study on Apollo 13: Strategic Decision Making. 182 writers online. Learn More. The decisions have to take place within a context of limited time and other resources. Soon after the launch of NASA's Apollo 13, part of the spacecraft explodes leaving the astronauts with limited decisions. Their major aim is to ensure that ...
12-18 April 1970. by Hamish Lindsay. The Mission Insignia for Apollo 13 showed the god Apollo, representing the Sun, riding his chariot across the surface of the Moon to symbolise the Apollo Project bringing back new knowledge from the Moon. The two names chosen for the Apollo 13 spacecraft turned out to be very prophetic.
Apollo 13. Disaster. 135 minutes ‧ PG ‧ 1995. Roger Ebert. June 30, 1995. 5 min read. There is a moment early in "Apollo 13" when astronaut Jim Lovell is taking some press on a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and he brags that they have a computer "that fits in one room and can send out millions of instructions.".
The mission in crisis. The story begins with Apollo 13's journey to the Moon.After a successful launch on April 11, 1970, an oxygen tank explodes two days into the mission, 210,000 miles from Earth.
The Apollo 13 mission was a significant historical event, because of the dangerous repercussions that followed the explosion of the oxygen tank on Apollo 13. The story in which the astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise surviving these errors during the flight is truly incredible. In the movie Apollo 13, the creators depicted most of the events ...