Sky News - CA (2020-03 & 2020-04)

Left: April 17, 1970. This photograph of the severely

damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM), with the

Moon in the distant background, was taken from

the Lunar Module after the SM was jettisoned.

The Command Module, still docked with the LM,

is in the foreground. (NASA)

Below: The insignia of the Apollo 13 mission.

Represented in the emblem is Apollo, the sun

god of Greek mythology. (NASA)

The launch

When Apollo 13 took of April 11, 1970, public interest in

Apollo had dimmed since the irst two lunar landing lights

the previous year.

he crew of Apollo 13 included three people. Helming the

spacecraft was commander Jim Lovell, a veteran of two

Gemini Earth-orbiting space lights and Apollo 8,

the irst human mission to circle the moon.

Joining him were two rookie astronauts: lunar module pilot

Fred Haise and command and service module pilot Ken

Mattingly. Piloting Aquarius, Lovell and Haise were expected

to land in the Moon’s Fra Mauro formation, while Mattingly

would perform scientiic observations from Odyssey. he trio

emphasized scientiic goals for their mission by placing the

motto “Ex luna, scientia” (“From the Moon, knowledge”) on

their crew patch.

Even a last-minute crew substitution failed to stir public

interest; NASA swapped Mattingly for Jack Swigert days

before launch, when the prime crew was exposed to the

German measles through backup crew member Charlie

Duke. Mattingly, uniquely among the Apollo 13 crew, had

no known immunity to the illness. He was

pulled from the light as a precaution.

For its irst 56 hours after launch, Apollo 13 followed

the routine set out by the lunar lights that had preceded

it. On the evening of April 13, the crew broadcast live

video for television from inside Odyssey and Aquarius.

After the broadcast inished, NASA mission controllers in

Houston asked Swigert to perform the routine procedure

of stirring the tanks. his procedure cleared slush from

the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks in Odyssey’s

service module. he hydrogen and oxygen tanks were

linked to the fuel cells that supplied power to Odyssey,

and the oxygen tanks also supplied air to breathe.

After Swigert began the procedure, the crew heard

and felt a bang, as alarms went of aboard Odyssey.

“OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,”

Swigert radioed to Houston.

When the spacecraft communicator asked Swigert
to repeat what he had said, Lovell conirmed,
SKYNEWS • MAR/APR 2020