Apollo 13 was the third Apollo mission intended to land on the Moon. The craft was successfully launched toward the Moon, but the landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank ruptured, severely damaging the spacecraft's electrical system. The flight was commanded by James A. Lovell; with John L. "Jack" Swigert, Command Module pilot; and Fred W. Haise, Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for the original CM pilot Ken Mattingly, who was grounded by the flight surgeon after exposure to German measles.
The mission was launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days later, en route to the Moon, a fault in electrical equipment inside one of the Service Module's oxygen tanks produced an explosion which caused the loss of both tanks' oxygen, depriving the Service Module of electrical power. This forced the crew to shut down the Command Module to conserve its batteries and oxygen needed for the last hours of flight, and use the Lunar Module's resources as a "lifeboat" during the return trip to Earth. 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 returned safely to Earth on April 17, and the mission was termed a "successful failure".
Crew
Prime and back up crew
By the standard crew rotation in place during the Apollo program, the prime crew for Apollo 13 would have been the backup crew for Apollo 10 with Mercury and Gemini veteran L. Gordon Cooper in command. That crew was composed of
- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr (Commander)
- Donn F. Eisele (Command Module Pilot)
- Edgar D. Mitchell (Lunar Module Pilot)
However, Deke Slayton never intended to rotate Cooper and Eisele to another mission, as both were out of favor with NASA management for various reasons (Cooper for his lax attitude towards training, and Eisele for incidents aboard Apollo 7 and an extra-marital affair). He assigned them to the backup crew simply because of a lack of flight-qualified manpower in the Astronaut Office at the time the assignment needed to be made.Slayton felt Cooper had a very small chance of receiving the Apollo 13 command if he did an outstanding job with the assignment, which he didn't. Despite Eisle's issues with management, Slayton always intended to assign him to a future Apollo Applications Program mission rather than a lunar mission, but this program was eventually cut down to only the Skylab component.
Thus, the original assignment Slayton submitted to his superiors for this flight was:
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr (Commander)
- Stuart A. Roosa (Command Module Pilot)
- Edgar D. Mitchell (Lunar Module Pilot)
However, for the first time ever, Slayton's recommendation was rejected by management, who felt that Shepard needed more time to properly train for a lunar flight, since he had only recently benefited from experimental surgery to correct an inner ear disorder which kept him grounded since his first Mercury flight in 1961. Thus, Lovell's crew, backup for the historic Apollo 11 mission and therefore slated for Apollo 14, was swapped with Shepard's crew.Thus the original crew selection for the mission became:
Prime crew:
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | James A. Lovell, Jr. | |
| Command Module Pilot | Ken Mattingly | |
| Lunar Module Pilot | Fred W. Haise, Jr. | |
Backup crew:
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | John W. Young | |
| Command Module Pilot | John L. Swigert | |
| Lunar Module Pilot | Charles M. Duke, Jr | |
Ken Mattingly was originally slated to be the Command Module pilot. Seven days before launch, Charles Duke contracted German measles from one of his children. This exposed both prime and backup crews, who trained together. Mattingly was found to be the only one of the five who had not had measles as a child and thus not immune. Three days before launch, based on demand of the Flight Surgeon, Swigert was moved to the prime crew.Thus the crew for the flight was Lovell, Haise and Swigert.
Crew at launch:
| Position | Astronaut | |
|---|---|---|
| Commander | Jim Lovell Fourth spaceflight | |
| Command Module Pilot | Jack Swigert First spaceflight | |
| Lunar Module Pilot | Fred Haise First spaceflight | |
