Apollo 13 Launch: 55 Years Ago

Apollo 13 Launch: 55 Years Ago

NASA NASA astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert launch aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 11, 1970. The mission seemed to be going smoothly until 55 hours and 55 minutes in when an oxygen tank ruptured. The new mission plan involved abandoning the Moon landing, looping around the Moon and getting the crew home safely as quickly as possible. The crew needed to go into “lifeboat mode,…

55 Years Ago Today: The Launch of Apollo 13

This April 11 marks the 55th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 13 mission, which did not reach its destination on the lunar surface but became famous for its return to Earth under extreme conditions.

Apollo 13 Blasted Off 55 Years Ago - NASA Anniversary

Apollo 13: A Historic Mission of Resilience and Ingenuity On April 11, 1970, NASA launched the Apollo 13 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert aboard. This mission was initially planned as a routine journey to the Moon, but it soon transformed into a dramatic […]

This April 11th marks the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, which did not reach its destination to the lunar surface, but became famous for its return to Earth in limit conditions.It was April 13, 1970, when Apollo 13 recorded an anomaly during its one-way journey to the Moon, which ended up becoming a real space odyssey.Two days after the take-off, at 21.08, astronaut Jack Swigert contacted mission control in Houston to say "Well, Hous…

It was supposed to be a relatively "routine" trip to the Moon, where the crew had planned activities in the Fra Mauro Highlands. However, just five and a half minutes after launch, an anomaly occurred when the central engine of the second stage of the rocket shut down two minutes earlier than it should have. The remaining engines had to burn longer to get Apollo 13 into orbit. Despite these complications, it seemed that the ship had already chos…