As it veered wildly off course,
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
Time was running out. The Apollo 11 lunar module was on its historic descent to the moon's crater-pocked surface on 20 July 1969 when a fuel light blinked on. Still 100ft (30 metres) above the ground, it was not what the astronauts needed. The Eagle's tank was nearly dry.
In 1969, Apollo 11 returned to Earth, ending its historic moon-landing mission. After the spacecraft's splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were flown by helicopter to the recovery ship USS Hornet.
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had to troubleshoot unexpected problems, like a "lumpy" lunar gravitational field, a rocky landing site and some extra oomph at the start of the lunar module's journey.
On Jan. 27, 1967, a fire swept through the Apollo 1 Command Module during a launch rehearsal test, tragically killing the three astronauts trapped inside. Astronauts Gus Grissom (left), Ed White (middle), and Roger Chaffee (right), died on Jan.
During a complete Apollo mission, astronauts were exposed to widely varying radiation sources. These included the Van Allen belts, cosmic rays, neutrons, and other [106] subatomic particles created in high energy collisions of primary particles with spacecraft materials.
Apollo 11 carried the first geologic samples from the Moon back to Earth. In all, astronauts collected 21.6 kilograms of material, including 50 rocks, samples of the fine-grained lunar regolith (or "soil"), and two core tubes that included material from up to 13 centimeters below the Moon's surface.
The TLI placed Apollo on a "free-return trajectory" - often illustrated as a figure of eight shape. This course would have harnessed the power of the Moon's gravity to propel the spacecraft back to Earth without the need for more rocket fuel.
Two Apollo missions were failures: a 1967 cabin fire killed the entire Apollo 1 crew during a ground test in preparation for what was to be the first crewed flight; and the third landing attempt on Apollo 13 was aborted by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon, which disabled the CSM Odyssey's electrical power ...
Roger Launius, the former NASA chief historian and a former senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum, agreed, saying, “there is no evidence to support the assertion that he left a bracelet of his daughter on the moon.” Though apparently fiction, the moment is a critical one.
The atmosphere in the Apollo spacecraft was 100% oxygen, at a pressure of five pounds per square inch.
A particularly tragic aspect of the Apollo 1 fire was the fact that the astronauts inside the capsule tried to open the hatch to escape, but couldn't. The investigation later revealed that the hatch opening procedures were way too difficult and took too long to be executed in an emergency.
The Apollo 13 mission was to be the third lunar landing in the program before an on board explosion forced the mission to circle the Moon without landing. This is the insignia of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
But when Swigert turned on the fans on the second oxygen tank for a routine “cryo stir” on the night of April 13, the damaged wiring caused a spark, starting a fire. At 9:08 pm, with its internal pressure mounting, the tank exploded.
The Eagle has landed.” At the time of landing, Mission Control thought that the spacecraft had just 17 seconds of fuel left in the descent stage. However, post mission analysis showed that sloshing in the fuel tank during Armstrong's search for a safe landing site caused the fuel gauge to give an inaccurate reading.
The Short Answer:
Gravity—combined with the satellite's momentum from its launch into space—cause the satellite to go into orbit above Earth, instead of falling back down to the ground.
Like a plumber's dream, the LM's environmental control system nestled in a corner of the ascent stage. Those hoses provided pure oxygen to two astronauts at a pressure one-third that of normal atmosphere, and at a comfortable temperature.
Every Apollo crew left behind seismometers, lots of geological tools, most of their cameras and their lunar module ascent stages. The Apollo 16 crew even left a gold-plated ultraviolet telescope. Apollos 11, 14 and 15 left the Laser Ranging RetroReflectors (LRRR) — and they still work.
The ignition source of the fire was determined to be electrical, and the fire spread rapidly due to combustible nylon material and the high-pressure pure oxygen cabin atmosphere. Rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the internal pressure of the cabin.
The moon's surface contains a new source of water found embedded in microscopic glass beads, which might one day help future astronauts produce drinking water, breathable air and rocket fuel, scientists say.
The Apollo missions followed ballistic trajectories, so they passed through the belts very quickly which reduced the risk from this population to a very low level. Apollo missions took only about 4.5 days to get to the Moon.
During this flight Haise developed a urinary tract infection and later kidney infections. These caused him to be in pain for most of the trip. Haise was slated to become the sixth human to walk on the Moon during Apollo 13 behind Lovell, who was to be fifth.
U.S. Air Force pathologists conducted examinations, concluding that the astronauts died of asphyxia from carbon monoxide and other toxic gases resulting from the fire. The burns they received were likely survivable. at Arlington National Cemetery.