Huston, we've had a problem here.

"Huston, we've had a problem here." These are the words that John L. Swigert transmitted to mission control on April 13th 1970. At a distance of 200,000 miles from Earth, oxygen tank number 2 exploded on the spacecraft carrying, James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise, and John L. Swigert to the moon. It was to be the third manned lunar landing mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 Here the damage to the service module can be seen

Apollo 13 continued on to the moon, circled it, and headed back to Earth. Over the next four days the astronauts faced problems with air supply, energy, and navigation. At times having to repeatedly make "dramatic and untested maneuvers." However, on April 17th 1970, the Apollo 13 astronauts successfully brought their damaged ship home.

Hats off to our space program for getting these men home safely.


-Red
www.jeffjake.com