Abstract Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in NASA’s Apollo program and it was the third mission intended to land astronauts on the moon. The lunar landing was aborted when an oxygen tank exploded, severely damaging the Service Module that supplies the Command Module with water, electricity, and oxygen. Despite enduring great stress and hardship, the three American astronauts, with the help of NASA’s great minds on the ground, miraculously returned safely back to Earth. The mission was deemed by NASA as a “successful failure” and the trio of astronauts instantly became American heroes.
The Crew. The crew of Apollo 13 consisted of Commander Jim Lovell, Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise.
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The first stage was then ejected into the ocean, and the second stage ignited, propelling the craft into Earth orbit. It took only 12 minutes for the rocket to reach Earth orbit at an altitude of 100 nautical miles (115 miles). The space craft performed one and a half orbits, and then the second stage separated and the third stage ignited its engines. Once it finally cut off, the Apollo spacecraft had reached a speed of 17,432 miles per hour. A final firing of the third stage then took the craft out of orbit and sent it hurling towards the Moon at almost 18,000 miles per hour. (Dunbar, B. (n.d.). Apollo 13.)
After the Launch 30 minutes later, the command/service module pair, commanded by Swigert, separated and turned 180 degrees and attached to the lunar module still nestled inside the lunar module adapter on the third stage of the rocket. Its job now finished, the third stage of the rocket detached from the lunar module and was sent on a course to crash-land on the Moon’s surface in the range of a seismometer placed on the surface by the crew of Apollo 12. (Dunbar, B. (n.d.). Apollo 13.) The three astronauts settled in for a three day trip to the Moon, 238,000 miles away from earth. The command module they were in was about the size of a small car. Attached to one end of the command module was the service module, which provided life-support to the command module and housed the craft’s engine. Attached to the other end of the craft was the lunar