The crew consisted of three different astronauts. Originally Thomas Mattingly was part of this three man crew. Mattingly was born on March 17, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois. After he graduated from college, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was a pilot and flew the A1H aircraft for the Navy. He then attended …show more content…
Lovell was born on March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio. Lovell joined the U.S. Naval Academy after two years of attending the University of Wisconsin. Lovell had various flight related positions while in the navy. NASA recruited Lovell to be part of the first manned spaceflight in September of 1962. Lovell was on the backup crew for the Gemini 4 mission. He was given the opportunity to fly on the Gemini 7 mission. He also worked with the Gemini 9, Gemini 12, and Apollo 11 missions. Lovell was the only astronaut to venture to the moon twice, but never touch it. After Apollo 13, Lovell was granted a leave to go to Harvard (James …show more content…
It was originally supposed to be the third flight to land people on the moon. Unfortunately, due to some difficulties, it did not quite make it. Apollo 13 took off at 2:13 p.m. on April 11, 1970 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its journey to the moon began smoothly. Its crew consisted of James Lovell, commander, Jack Swigert, command module pilot, and Haise, lunar module pilot. The crew was filled with people who would work well under the pressure of Apollo 13. Due to some issues during flight, the crew had to skip the lunar landing. Luckily, mission control was able to devise a plan to bring them home.The crew returned home safely with no long term injuries or illnesses on April 17, 1970 (“Apollo 13”). The Apollo 13 mission had many issues, but they really helped to shape the rest of the Apollo program. The improvements it allowed the program to make were huge. It exposed so many problems they did not know existed. It also brought so much support for space travel. President Richard Nixon said, “They did not reach the moon, but they reached the hearts of millions of people.”