The Flight of Apollo 13: 50 Years Later - Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion
Apollo 13 took off 50 years ago today. Here's the story of what really happened during history's greatest "successful failure."
The Flight of Apollo 13 began April 11, 1970 — exactly 50 years ago. This is the story of history’s most “successful failure.”
By James Maynard
On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, on the third mission designed to put human beings on the face of the Moon. Less than six minutes into the mission, things began to go wrong.
For six days, engineers and scientists around the globe raced to save the crew of Apollo 13: John Swigert, Fred Haise and Commander James Lovell, who had previously orbited the Moon during Apollo 8. The astronauts performed admirably, ensuring their survival and the (unfortunately short) Apollo program. Using technology and ingenuity, teams on Earth and aboard the damaged craft snatched victory from the hands of near-certain defeat.
Trouble began for Apollo 13 before the flight ever left the ground. A few days before takeoff, backup lunar module pilot Charles Duke accidentally exposed the crew to German measles. Command module pilot Ken Mattingly had no immunity to the disease, and he was replaced by John Swigert.
Tests conducted on the ground also suggested possible problems with a poorly-insulated helium tank onboard the Aquarius lunar module (LM) used to ferry astronauts to the Moon. This tank, originally installed on the capsule used for Apollo 10, was moved for modification, but was dropped two inches during the process. Inspection did not reveal obvious damage to the tank, but internal components used to move liquid oxygen had been loosened — the first link in a chain of events that would endanger the mission. Internal heating elements of the tank sustained further damage as engineers struggled to removed excess liquid oxygen trapped in the tank.
A decision was made that the astronauts assigned to touch down on the lunar surface would enter the vehicle three hours earlier than planned, in order to test the helium tank.
11 April 1970 19:13:00 (Coordinated Universal Time/UTC) — Liftoff
At first, the liftoff seemed to go as planned, but cataclysmic events would soon change the primary goal of this mission. For the first two days of the mission, the flight remained relatively uneventful.
“The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We’re bored to tears down here,” reported Joe Kerwin, the capsule communicator (Capcom) at mission control, 46 hours and 43 minutes after launch.
Despite those words, the mission designed to land astronauts on the Fra Mauro area of the Moon would soon become a struggle to bring the crew home alive.
Read more: https://bit.ly/Flight-Apollo-13