From the start, Apollo 13 seemed doomed. The number 13 was always seen as bad luck, but NASA shrugged it off. They believed in science, not superstitions. But fate? Fate had other ideas. The three astronauts—Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, were soon fighting for their lives, racing against time to get home.
It was April 11, 1970. The world watched as the crew waved goodbye and climbed into the rocket. This was it, the mission they’d been preparing for. Jim Lovell led the team as commander, with Jack Swigert as the command module pilot and Fred Haise as the lunar module pilot. Ken Mattingly was supposed to be there instead of Swigert, but he’d been exposed to rubella. At the last minute, NASA swapped in Swigert,a change that felt like the first crack in the mission’s armor.
The countdown ticked away. 25 seconds left. The Saturn V rocket ignited, its roar shaking the ground. Slowly, it lifted off, breaking free from Earth’s grip. At exactly 13:13 CST, Apollo 13 was on its way.
Back in Houston’s control room, things were calm. This was the third moon mission, after two successful ones, no one was too worried. For seven minutes, everything looked good. Then, as the second stage engines kicked in, something went wrong. The main engine cut out too soon.
“Houston, what’s going on with engine number 5?” Lovell’s voice crackled through the radio. But Houston didn’t have an answer. Without that engine, they might not make it to orbit. The control room erupted into frantic calculations, trying to figure out if the remaining engines could still get the rocket into space. After tense moments, they made the call: keep going. Apollo 13 reached space, and everyone sighed with relief. They thought the worst was over.
Apollo 13, now with the lunar module attached, began its long journey to the moon. Two days in, 320,000 kilometers from Earth, the crew gave a live update. But back home, hardly anyone watched. The public had grown bored, thinking they’d seen it all with the first moon landing.
The crew went back to work after the broadcast. Then, they were told to stir the oxygen tanks. That’s when it all went wrong.
A shudder. A loud bang. Alarms blared. The crew didn’t know what happened, but they knew it was bad.
“Houston, we had a problem,” Lovell’s voice came through, tense and urgent. The control room was thrown into chaos. The data didn’t make sense—was it a glitch? A power failure? No one knew. Then Lovell called again, explaining they’d heard a bang, and the alarms had gone off right after. Suddenly, it was clear—this was no glitch. Something was horribly wrong.
Two of their three fuel cells were gone. Electrical systems were failing one by one. And then, the worst news hit, they were losing oxygen. Fast. The astronauts looked out the window and saw oxygen escaping into the void.
The mission to the moon was over. Now, it was about survival. Could they even make it back to Earth? They had maybe 15 minutes of oxygen left in the main module. Their only hope was the lunar module, which had its own supply of oxygen and power. But it was only meant for two, not three.
They moved fast, powering up the lunar module, praying its systems would come online before the main module went dark. They made it. But they were far from safe.
With just 45 hours of air and power, they were still 336,000 kilometers from Earth, and the moon’s gravity was pulling them in.
Houston scrambled for solutions. Every option was risky. One wrong move, and it would all be over.
How could they turn the spacecraft around and get home before time ran out? They thought about using the lunar module’s engine, but it wasn’t strong enough. If they miscalculated, they’d crash into the moon.
What would they do next?
Part two coming soon...
Source: Digging deep with a caffeine high!
Pic: Decided it was time to join the Midjourney crew.
