Mission type | Crewed lunar landing attempt |
---|---|
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 1970-029A |
SATCAT no. | 4371 |
Mission duration | 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 41 seconds |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft |
|
Manufacturer |
|
Launch mass | 101,261 pounds (45,931 kg) |
Landing mass | 11,133 pounds (5,050 kg) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 3 |
Members | |
Callsign |
|
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. |
Apollo 13 was the seventh mission of NASA's Project Apollo. It was the third lunar-lander mission with a crew. Jim Lovell commanded Apollo 13. The other astronauts were Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.
The craft launched successfully toward the Moon, but two days after launch a faulty oxygen tank exploded. It damaged the Service Module. It lost 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 on 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 saved their remaining air by turning off almost all their electrical equipment, for example heaters. It became very cold in the spacecraft.