#failedlunarlanding

[benguin2]

#Apollo13 was the seventh manned mission in the #ApolloSpaceProgram and the third intended to land on the #Moon. The #spacecraft was launched on April 11, 1970, from the Kennedy Space Center, but the #lunar landing was #aborted after an #oxygentank #exploded two days later, crippling the Service Module (SM) upon which the Command Module (CM) depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew #returnedsafely to #Earth on April 17. The flight was commanded by #JamesLovell with #JackSwigert as Command Module Pilot and #FredHaise as Lunar Module Pilot. The #Apollo #13 mission was called "#ASuccessfulFailure" by #Lovell, because of the successful safe return of the #astronauts, but the #FailedLunarLanding. Lead Flight Director Gene Kranz and Flight controller Sy Liebergot, the first one to see the telemetry of the initial oxygen #tankfailure, both describe it decades later as "#NASA's finest hour." The Apollo 13 crew patch featured three flying horses as Apollo's 'chariot' across space. Given Lovell's Navy background, the logo also included the mottoes “Ex Luna, scientia” ("#FromTheMoonKnowledge"). The mission number appeared in Roman numerals as #ApolloXIII. It is one of two Apollo insignia—the other being Apollo 11—not to include the names of the crew. (This was fortunate, considering that original crew member #KenMattingly was replaced two days before the mission began, grounded by the flight surgeon after exposure to German measles). #JimLovell is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, the first of only three people to fly to the Moon twice, and the only one to have flown there twice without making a landing. Lovell was also the first person to fly in space four times.