Apollo 13

Lore & Background

The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella. A routine stir of an oxygen tank ignited damaged wire insulation inside it, causing an explosion that vented the contents of both of the SM's oxygen tanks to space. Without oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electrical power, the SM's propulsion and life support systems could not operate. The CM's systems had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the LM as a lifeboat.

Reader's Guide

Apollo 13 is significant as a dramatic example of in-flight crisis management and improvisation. Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two days, Mission Control in Houston improvised new procedures so it could support three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship, caused by limited power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of drinking water. There was a critical need to adapt the CM's cartridges for the carbon dioxide scrubber system to work in the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution. The astronauts' peril briefly renewed public interest in the Apollo program; tens of millions watched the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean on television. An investigative review board found fault with preflight testing of the oxygen tank and Teflon being placed inside it.

Did You Know?

• The explosion was caused by a routine stir of an oxygen tank that ignited damaged wire insulation.
• The crew transferred to the Lunar Module as a lifeboat after the service module's systems failed.
• Jack Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded due to rubella exposure.

The Crew and a Last-Minute Swap

Commander Jim Lovell brought a depth of experience to Apollo 13 that no one else in the program could match. Fred Haise, the thirty-six-year-old Lunar Module pilot, was a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and civilian research pilot for NASA. The crew's composition was not set in stone, however. Ken Mattingly had originally been scheduled as CMP, but a rubella exposure forced him to the ground, and Swigert stepped in at the last moment—a substitution that would prove consequential in the days that followed.

The Explosion and the Aborted Landing

Two days into the flight, a routine stirring of one of the service module's oxygen tanks triggered a catastrophic event: damaged wire insulation inside the tank ignited, and the resulting blast hurled the contents of both oxygen tanks out into the void. Oxygen was the lifeblood of the spacecraft—it was needed both for breathing and for generating the electrical power that kept everything running. With both tanks gone, the service module's propulsion and life-support systems were effectively dead. Mission controllers immediately ordered the command module's systems shut down to preserve whatever resources remained for the eventual reentry. The three astronauts were forced to abandon their primary vehicle and squeeze into the Lunar Module, a craft never intended to serve as a lifeboat, and begin a long circumlunar loop around the Moon to get home.

Four Days in a Two-Man Lifeboat

The Lunar Module had been engineered to sustain two astronauts on the lunar surface for roughly two days. Now it had to keep three men alive for four, with no margin for error. Mission Control in Houston scrambled to devise entirely new procedures for rationing power, managing consumables, and maintaining cabin conditions. The crew endured a cold, damp interior and a critically low supply of drinking water. Perhaps the most urgent engineering problem was the carbon dioxide scrubber: the command module used round cartridges, while the Lunar Module's system was built for a different shape. Crew members and controllers in the back rooms collaborated to fashion an adapter from available materials, and the improvised fix worked. The splashdown in the South Pacific on April 17 was witnessed by tens of millions of television viewers, a moment that briefly rekindled a public appetite for the space program that had been waning since the euphoria of Apollo 11.

Investigation, Reform, and the Story That Endured

Once the crew was safely recovered, a review board examined what had gone wrong. It concluded that preflight testing of the oxygen tank had been inadequate and identified Teflon material placed inside the tank as a contributing factor. The board urged that potentially combustible items be minimized within the tank's interior, a recommendation that was implemented before Apollo 14 flew. The broader context made the failure all the more poignant: after the triumph of Apollo 11, public enthusiasm had cooled, congressional budgets for NASA were shrinking, and Apollo 20 had already been canceled. The astronauts themselves were considered such high-risk workers that they could not secure life insurance to protect their families. Yet the drama of Apollo 13's near-disaster captured the nation's attention once more.