Apollo 13 The

Successful Failure

Written by: Ariel Pilgrim

The Beginning of Apollo 13

In the 1960s and 70s, NASA had a space program called Apollo. The 13th mission, Apollo 13, was known as a successful failure. It was a mission that would change NASA forever.

The CrewThe crew for this mission was Jim Lovell (James A. Lovell Jr.), Commander, Fred Haise (Fred W. Haise, Jr.), Lunar Module Pilot, and Jack Swigert (John L. Swigert Jr.), Command Module Pilot.

The Backup CrewThe backup crew consisted of John W. Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charles M. Duke.

LaunchApollo 13 launched April 11, 1970, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:00 P.M.

Broadcast Two days and Seven

hours into the mission, they made an unaired broadcast on their lifestyle in space. But, they didn’t know that people around the country weren’t watching, and they wouldn’t know until they got back.

Why weren’t they watching?

The reason no one was watching was because NASA figured since Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11, had already landed on the moon, nobody would want to watch.

Explosion Nine minutes after

the broadcast, there was an explosion. Oxygen tanks 1 and 2 were both destroyed. They lost most of their supply of electricity, light, and water, and they were 200,000 miles away from Earth.

The Big Misquote One of the most

misquoted phrases in American History came from this mission. What is often quoted is, “Houston we have a problem.” The correct quote is, “Houston, we’ve had a problem, here,’ said by Jack Swigert.

Wake-Up!!! Soon afterward NASA

worked very quickly to develop a procedure for powering up the Command Module after it’s long cold sleep. After the explosion, the crew was forced to leave the Command Module and power it down to save power for reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.

Splashdown Splashdown

was April 17, 1970, at 1:07 P.M. only four miles from the prime recovery ship, Iwo Jima.

Jim Lovell Today

After leaving NASA, Jim Lovell became president of Lovell Communications and serves as a chairman of Mission HOME, a program that tries to encourage enthusiasm and support for space. Lovell is married and has four children. He and his family live near Chicago.

Jack Swigert after Apollo

After the mission, Swigert ran for the US Senate in his home state and was defeated. In 1982 he ran for Congress in the newly created 6th Congressional District. He was diagnosed with a malignant tumor, which was surgically removed, during the election. He won, but not before the cancer spread. Swigert died December 27, 1982, before he was sworn into office.

Haise still involved with Space

In June 1979, Haise resigned from NASA to become vice president of space programs for Grumman Aerospace Corporation. He is now retired and living in Texas.