Apollo 13 launched on April 11 1970 at 1:13 PM central time or 13:13 central time. Like pictured up above, it had 3 crewmates, James Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. 3, 2, 1, blast off!
First time flyer, Jack Swigert, 38 got the job of being the backup command module pilot. He officially joined the crew just 2 days before the launch to replace Ken Mattingly, 34, who was exposed to German Measles, or Rubella. Mattingly wasn’t allowed to join the crew since he didn’t have immunity.
James Lovell, 42, the world’s by far most travelled astronaut by far participated in 3 missions and had 572 spaceflight hours of experience or 3.4 weeks of experience. He had participated in Apollo 8, the 1st manned spacecraft to leave earth, and reach the moon. Lovell also took part in several Gemini missions, Gemini 4, Gemini …show more content…
This involved an explosion that not only broke down one of the tanks. It also ruptured a line in the other oxygen tank as well, causing it to rapidly lose oxygen. The lunar module, Aquarius became the 3 astronauts’ lifeboat and only hope. “Houston, we’ve got a problem here,” astronaut Jack Swigert told mission control in Houston. The Houston citizens were worried about Lovell, Swigert and Haise’s safety. It had plunged the citizens into a 3.5 day drama regarding the safety of Apollo 13 and it’s crewmembers. As engineers gathered in the Apollo 13 control room in Houston, they worked on temporary plans to save Apollo 13. The three crewmembers almost became the first people to die in space. If the engineers in the control room didn’t take action, the three astronauts would have suffocated and died in space despite such hardships. NASA finally thought up of a plan, to keep the service module attached and make a burn bringing the crew back in just