A Successful Failure: 10 Fun Facts About Apollo 13

April 11, 2025 is the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, the seventh manned flight of the Apollo program and the third planned manned lunar landing. The mission's commander was Jim Lovell, veteran of Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8. The command module pilot was Jack Swigert, who was originally the backup CMP for Apollo 13 (more on that later). Fred Haise served as lunar module pilot. Let's look at ten interesting facts about Apollo 13!

Lovell, Swigert, and Haise a few days prior to launch (NASA)

1. Age of Aquarius

The command module's callsign Odyssey was chosen for two reasons. First, the word "odyssey" means "a long and eventful journey" and originates from the ancient Greek Odysseia, or Homer's Odyssey. Second, the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in summer 1968, and it was not uncommon for astronauts to name their spacecraft after popular culture [1]. Sticking with ancient symbolism, the lunar module was named Aquarius after the constellation Aquarius, the "water-bearer". It was not taken from the medley "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"

from the 1967 musical Hair and performed by the group the 5th Dimension. Unlike other Apollo missions, Apollo 13 also had a motto. Ex luna, scientia ("From the moon, knowledge"), is modified from the US Naval Academy's motto Ex trident, scientia ("From the sea, knowledge"), Lovell's alma mater. The mission's motto and callsign Aquarius also pay homage to Lovell's Navy service.

The two namesakes of command module Odyssey (Penguin Classics | MGM)

2. Patch Me Through

In 1969, artist Lumen Winter painted a wall mural of four horses dashing across the sky to be displayed at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. Shortly after, he was approached by the astronauts of Apollo 13 to design the insignia for the third manned lunar landing. Lovell, who designed the patches of his previous three missions, wanted to incorporate the Greek god Apollo— the god of the sun— and his chariot, as well as the mission's scientific importance. Winter drew inspiration from his St. Regis Hotel mural, appropriately titled "Steeds of Apollo", and designed an insignia depicting three horses, very similar to those on the mural, pulling a large sun, symbolizing Apollo, from the Earth to the moon. The mission's motto replaces the crew's names, and is one of only two Apollo mission patches to not include names (the other being Apollo 11). While the official emblem and beta cloth version of the patch include gold horses and a gold rim, some embroidered versions have silver rims and horses of different shades of brown.

Apollo 13 official insignia (NASA)

Winter's mural was removed from the St. Regis Hotel following its renovation some years later and for a while, was missing in action. In the 1990s, it went up for auction along with other space artifacts in Los Angeles, California and was purchased by Tom Hanks, who portrayed Jim Lovell in the 1995 Apollo 13 and was the executive producer of the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. Hanks gifted the mural to Lovell, who then gave it to his son to display in his restaurant Lovell's of Lake Forest near Chicago, Illinois. After the establishment's closure, the piece was donated to the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Center. There are two interesting coincidences surrounding Apollo 13's patch. First, Winter's painting includes a fourth horse falling behind the other three, which, ironically and in retrospect, could represent Ken Mattingly being held back from flying to the moon (for the time being). Second, a proposed patch for Apollo 8, designed by Allen Stevens, featured three horses.

1969 oil painting "Steeds of Apollo" by Lumen Winter (Lumen Winter via Heritage Auctions)

3. Your Flight has Been Delayed

Following the standard Apollo crew rotation, in which every third crew is a mission's prime crew, the prime crew of Apollo 13 would have been the backup crew of Apollo 10: commander Gordon Cooper, veteran of Mercury-Atlas 9 and Gemini 5, CMP Donn Eisele, veteran of Apollo 7, and rookie Edgar Mitchell as LMP. However, Cooper's remiss attitude towards training and Eisele's participation in the Apollo 7 near-mutiny seriously harmed their chances of flying in space again. Cooper was replaced by fellow Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, who recently returned to active flight status following surgery to treat Ménière's disease (an inner ear disorder), while Eisele was replaced by rookie Stuart Roosa. Lovell, Ken Mattingly, and Haise served as the backup crew of Apollo 11 and were the prime crew of Apollo 14. However, upper management believed Shepard needed more time training since it had been nine years since his most recent trip to space, so in late 1969 the crews of Apollo's 13 and 14 were swapped. John Young, Jack Swigert, and Charlie Duke were the backup CDR, CMP, and LMP, respectively, of Apollo 13.

Another change in the mission's crew came only two days before launch. Backup LMP Charlie Duke contracted German measles from his son's friend, exposing both the prime and backup crews to the virus. Of the six men, Mattingly was the only who had not developed immunity by contracting the virus in the past and was therefore at risk of developing measles while in space. On April 9, he was replaced by backup CMP Jack Swigert. Fortunately for Mattingly, he flew to the moon as CMP of Apollo 16 in 1972 and served as the commander of the fourth Space Shuttle mission, having never gotten the measles.

Capsule Communicators, or CAPCOMs, for Apollo 13 were Vance Brand, Joe Kerwin, Jack Lousma, Ken Mattingly, and John Young.

Lovell, Mattingly, and Haise in December 1969 (NASA)

4. First Man

As commander of Apollo 13, Jim Lovell became the first person to fly in space four times and the first of only three men to fly to the moon twice [2]. Though disqualified from astronaut candidacy for Project Mercury, he was selected by NASA in 1962 for the second group of astronauts, the New Nine. Lovell first served as pilot of Gemini 7 in December 1965 and set a human space endurance record of 14 days with Frank Borman. In November 1966, he was command pilot of Gemini 12, the final mission of the Gemini program, with future second man on the moon Buzz Aldrin.

Lovell in front of his Saturn V rocket, April 1970 (NASA)

5. 2000 Light Years from Home

One task assigned to the crew of Apollo 13 was the photographing of Comet Bennett. It was first observed in December 1969 from Petroria, South Africa by John Caister Bennett. It reached its perigee in March 1970 and was observed by NASA's Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2, the world's first successful space telescope, and Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 in ultraviolet and by the Goddard Space Flight Center in visible light. While the Apollo 13 astronauts possibly viewed the comet in space, they failed to capture it on film since the oxygen tank ruptured as they were maneuvering the spacecraft.

Jim Lovell was actually the first person to view a total solar eclipse from space during Gemini 12 in November 1966. The crew of Apollo 12 viewed a total solar eclipse while returning from the moon in November 1969 as well. During Apollo 16, John Young and Charlie Duke deployed the first moon-based telescope while the Skylab astronauts made numerous astronomical observations using the Apollo Telescope Mount. Space Shuttle missions STS-51L Challenger and STS-61E Columbia were supposed to observe Halley's comet from low-Earth orbit during its 1986 apparition, but STS-61E was canceled after the loss of STS-51L.

April 1970 photo of Comet Bennett taken by Dennis di Cicco (via The World At Night)

6. No Warnings, Just a Tremendous Bang

On April 13, approximately 205,000 miles (nearly 330,000 km) from Earth, the crew of Apollo 13 had just finished a television broadcast from inside their spacecraft. Unbeknownst to them, no television networks were carrying the broadcast since public interest in the Apollo program had decreased after Apollo 11. That was about to change. At 55 hours and 55 minutes into the flight, right after the crew stirred the cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks in the Service Module, a routine housekeeping chore, a dull bang reverberated throughout the two spacecraft. Lovell radioed his now famous, "Houston, we've had a problem," to Mission Control and reported that the onboard sensors detected a drop in voltage in one of the two main DC electrical buses, which supply power to the spacecraft. 14 minutes later he looked out Odyssey's window to find oxygen, vital to keeping the crew and spacecraft alive, venting from the spacecraft. Oxygen tank #2 had exploded and damaged tank #1. The depletion of oxygen meant fuel, electrical power, and water were becoming more scarce by the minute. Fortunately, LM Aquarius was not crippled by the explosion and could serve as a lifeboat for the crew. The three astronauts powered down Odyssey and moved to the small Lunar Module.

Less than an hour after the bang, Flight Director Gene Kranz made the call to abandon the moon landing and bring the astronauts home as soon as possible. Jim Lovell and Fred Haise would not be the fifth and sixth men to land on the moon.

Photo of the Service Module taken by the crew after jettison prior to Earth reentry. The hull panel of section four is almost entirely blown away and the spot where oxygen tank #2 should be is empty (NASA)

7. Lost Moon

The Fra Mauro Highlands, named after a 15th century Italian cartographer and friar named Mauro, was the intended landing site of Apollo 13. Lovell and Haise planned to spend 33 hours on the moon and perform two extra-vehicular activities (moonwalks), conducting geological surveys and deploying the ALSEP, or Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package. The ALSEP included the Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment (CPLEE), the Dust Detector, the Heat Flow Experiment (HFE), the Lunar Atmosphere Detector, and the Passive Seismic Experiment. The CPLEE and Heat Flow Experiment were to make their debut on Apollo 13— the CPLEE was to "measure the particle energies of protons and electrons that reach the lunar surface from the sun" while the HFE would have measured the "steady-state heat flow from the lunar interior" (Apollo 13 Press Kit). The ALSEP was powered by the SNAP-27 radioisotope thermal generator (RTG), which generated electricity via the heat produced by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 [3]. Fra Mauro was explored by Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell in February 1971.

The cask which stored the plutonium-238, while meant to remain on the moon for all eternity, was designed to withstand reentry into Earth's atmosphere in the event of an aborted launch. Rather than being jettisoned in lunar orbit like it normally would be, lifeboat Aquarius returned to Earth and was jettisoned prior to Odyssey's reentry. The LM reentered the atmosphere over the southwest Pacific Ocean and the fully-intact RTG cask now sits at the bottom of the Tonga Trench. The crew traveled farther from Earth than anyone in human history due to Apollo 13's free return trajectory— 248,577 miles, or just over 400,000 kilometers.

Concept art of the Apollo 13 astronauts at Fra Mauro (NASA)

8 Square Peg in a Round Hole

In Aquarius, the astronauts had plenty of oxygen and fuel to slingshot around the moon and return to Earth safely. But one thing they had too much of was carbon dioxide. Apollo 13's Lunar Module was designed to support two astronauts for 45 hours, not three astronauts for four days. While they were equipped with plenty of lithium hydroxide canisters, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, there was a catch: The CSM's canisters were square and the LM's scrubber openings were round. Engineers in Houston got to work figuring out how to fit a square peg into a round hole and constructed what they called "the mailbox" using only materials the astronauts had onboard. Over the course of an hour, CAPCOM Joe Kerwin read the procedure for building "the mailbox" to the crew, of which they built two. Within minutes of installing the first to Aquarius, carbon dioxide began dropping.

The "mailbox" was constructed from items such as duct tape, cardstock, a spacesuit hose, and a plastic bag. (l) Lovell and Swigert build the "mailbox" (r) The "mailbox" installed in Aquarius (NASA)

9. Envoys of Mankind

In the 1969 sci-fi thriller Marooned, based on the 1964 novel by Martin Caidin, a trio of Apollo astronauts are stranded in orbit when their spacecraft's main engine failed to fire. At the end of the movie, a Soviet Voskhod shows up to help but is unable to provide any assistance. While this offer of support from the "big bad enemy" may have seemed unrealistic to audiences, it foresaw what would happen to Apollo 13 (sort of).

On April 15, President Nixon received offers of assistance in retrieving the stranded American astronauts from a dozen nations, including the Soviet Union. Under Article V of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the foundation of all international space law and policy, State Parties shall render to astronauts— referred to as "envoys of mankind"— "all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing". This Article is the foundation of the 1968 Rescue and Return Agreement, which had more than 75 signatories at the time of Apollo 13, and ensures astronauts' safe and prompt return to "representatives of the launching authority" (in this case the U.S.) if they are to land in the jurisdiction of another State.

Photographic replica of the plaque attached to Aquarius's landing gear ladder. The original plaque with Mattingly's name was already bolted to the ladder so Lovell would have placed the new one over top once on the moon. Once it was clear they would not be landing on the moon, Lovell kept the replacement as a souvenir and the original plaque was destroyed with Aquarius when it reentered Earth's atmosphere (NASA)

The New York Times published the message sent by Premier Alexei Kosygin to President Nixon: "We follow with concern the flight of the spacecraft Apollo 13, which is in an emergency condition. I would like to inform you that the Soviet Government has ordered the civilian and military authorities of the Soviet Union to use, in case of necessity, all means to help rescue the American astronauts. On behalf of the Soviet Government, I wish to express to you the hope that the courageous astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise return safely to the Earth."

In Rome, Pope Paul VI led a congregation of 10,000 in prayer for the astronauts' safe return [4]. Prayers were also offered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and at a religious festival in India. Space exploration once again united people around the world.

Lovell and Haise practice their EVA that would never come (NASA)

10. Anchors Aweigh

Odyssey was powered back on about six and a half hours before reentry. One hour and twenty minutes before reentry, the crew jettisoned their lifeboat Aquarius, prompting CAPCOM Joe Kerwin to say, "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you." Jack Swigert added later, "She sure was a good ship." Mission Control tracked the weak Tropical Cyclone Helen lingering near Apollo 13's splashdown zone. Fortunately, the storm stayed out of the way [5].

On April 17, command module Odyssey and her crew splashed down near American Samoa in the South Pacific were retrieved by the USS Iwo Jima. The Iwo Jima was the lead ship of her class (the Iwo Jima-class) and an amphibious assault ship that carried helicopters. She participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis quarantine and the Vietnam War before serving as the flagship of Task Force 130, the Pacific Recovery Forces for the Manned Spacecraft Missions, during Apollo 13. Iwo Jima was decommissioned in 1993 and sold for scrap in 1995.

An estimated 40 million Americans watched Apollo 13 splash down and the event was broadcast globally. The next day, the crew flew to Hawaii and were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon. Odyssey is now on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Haise, Swigert, and Lovell with Rear Admiral Donald C. Davis, Commanding Officer of Task Force 130, aboard the Iwo Jima (NASA)

Budget cuts and the grim reminder of the dangers of manned spaceflight forced NASA to cancel the last two scheduled Apollo missions in September 1970. Prior to Apollo 14, the Service Module's oxygen tanks were redesigned and a third was added. Electrical wiring in bay 4, where the original two oxygens tanks were housed, was covered in stainless steel, and an emergency supply of water and a spare battery were added to the Command Module. Further, no subsequent mission was given the number designation "13" [6].

Multiple TV documentaries about Apollo 13 were released in the 1970s and 1990s, and Jim Lovell and journalist Jeffrey Kluger wrote Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 in the early 1990s. It was published in 1994 and adapted into the film Apollo 13, which released the following year and starred Tom Hanks as Lovell, Kevin Bacon as Swigert, Bill Paxton as Haise, Gary Sinise as Mattingly, and Ed Harris as Gene Kranz [7]. The USS Iwo Jima was portrayed by her sister ship and frequent retriever of spacecraft, the USS New Orleans. Jim Lovell portrayed Iwo Jima's skipper, Captain Leland Kirkemo. The 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon tells Apollo 13's story from the perspective of reporters on Earth covering the event.

Celebration in Mission Control once the crew is on the deck of Iwo Jima. Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton is in the dark striped suit. Flight Director Gene Kranz, wearing his iconic white vest, smokes a cigar (NASA)

Jim Lovell retired from the U.S. Navy and from NASA in 1973 with the rank of captain. He worked in the private sector until the 1990s and the Lovell family owned and operated the restaurant "Lovell's of Lake Forest" in Illinois from 1999 to 2015. After two-time crewmate Frank Borman passed away in November 2023, Lovell became the oldest living former astronaut. He passed away on August 7, 2025 at the age of 97. Jack Swigert left NASA in 1977 to pursue a career in politics. He was elected to Congress for Colorado's 6th district in 1982, but passed away from bone marrow cancer on December 27, only one week before he could take office. Fred Haise served as backup commander of Apollo 16 and would have commanded Apollo 19 had it not been canceled. He transferred to the new Space Shuttle program and flew some of the five Enterprise Approach and Landing Tests in 1977. He retired from NASA in 1979 and served as a test pilot and executive officer for the Grumman Aerospace Corporation until 1996. Lovell was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1993 and Swigert and Haise were inducted in 1997.

Dubbed a "successful failure" by Lovell and "NASA's finest hour" by others, Apollo 13's triumph is a testament to human ingenuity, resilience, and teamwork. It set safety standards for the next fifty-five years of crewed space exploration and has gone down in history as one of the most influential space missions ever flown. But the Apollo program still had a lot more history to make...

Author's note: Thanks for reading and be sure to like and share!

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[1] Gemini 3's spacecraft was named Molly Brown after the Broadway musical (and real-life Titanic survivor) The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Apollo 10's CSM was called Charlie Brown while its LM was Snoopy.

[2] The other two were John Young (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16) and Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17). Dave Scott also flew two Apollo missions (Apollo 9 and Apollo 15), but Apollo 9 did not fly to the moon.

[3] SNAP, or Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, was a program of experimental RTGs flown in space during the '60s.

[4] Pope Paul VI also provided a message for Apollo 11's goodwill message disc on the lunar surface.

[5] In October 2024, Hurricane Milton delayed the return of SpaceX Crew-8 from the ISS.

[6] Space Shuttle missions after STS-9 used a number-number-letter designation system meant to convey more information about a mission than just a numeral. Unofficially, it was also due to Administrator James Begg's triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number thirteen.

[7] Movie Gene Kranz's "Failure is not an option" was never said in real life but was a paraphrasing of something a flight controller said during an interview for the movie.

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Bibliography

• 2222 (XXI). Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/outerspacetreaty.html

• "Apollo 13 Press Kit." NASA, 1970. https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/a13/a13_presskit.pdf

• "C/1969 Y1 (Bennett)." Gary W. Kronk's Cometography. https://cometography.com/lcomets/1969y1.html

• Dorr, Gene. "Apollo 13." Space Mission Patches. https://genedorr.com/patches/Apollo/Ap13.html

• Lovell, James and Kluger, Jeffrey. Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

• Lyons, Richard D. "12 Countries Offer to Help in Recovery of Astronauts." The New York Times, April 1970. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/16/archives/12-countries-offer-to-help-in-recovery-of-astronauts-12-countries.html

• Mohon, Lee. "Apollo 13: The Successful Failure." NASA, April 2020. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/apollo/apollo-13-the-successful-failure/

• "On Board Apollo 13: the Astronauts' Own Story." LIFE, May 1970.

• Uri, John. "50 Years Ago: 'Houston, We've Had a Problem'." NASA, April 2020. https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-houston-weve-had-a-problem/

Intellectual Properties I don't own

• "2000 Light Years from Home" — written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, performed by the Rolling Stones from the album Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1967.

This post was written entirely without the use of AI (sorry HAL). Go Cats!