Fifty-five hours and fifty-five minutes into the flight, on the way to the Moon, the crew of Apollo 13 heard a loud bang. An oxygen tank in the service module had failed. Within two hours it was clear that the command module - the ship meant to bring them home - would be dead long before they got there.
Crew: Okay, Houston - I believe we've had a problem here. CAPCOM: This is Houston. Say again, please. Crew: Houston, we've had a problem.
We've had a MAIN B BUS UNDERVOLT. CAPCOM: Roger. MAIN B UNDERVOLT. Mission Control, Houston, fifty-five hours and fifty-five minutes into the flight, on the way to the Moon.
Seconds earlier, the crew had heard a loud bang. Apollo thirteen was the third attempt to land men on the Moon. On the evening of the thirteenth of April, nineteen seventy, an oxygen tank in its service module failed. Within two hours it was clear that the command module, the ship that was meant to bring the crew home, would be dead long before they got there.
They lived for four days inside the lunar module, a craft built to keep two men alive on the Moon for a short stay, and they came down in the Pacific on the seventeenth of April. This film is made from what NASA recorded at the time. In Mission Control every voice channel was taped, thirty at a time, on machines called the historical recorders: the flight director, the systems engineers, and the one man allowed to speak to the crew, the capsule communicator, or CAPCOM. Every word quoted on screen comes from NASA's own transcripts of nineteen seventy, and every finding about what failed comes from the board that investigated it.
The crew was not the crew that had trained. In the last week, the backup lunar module pilot, Charlie Duke, came down with German measles. Blood tests showed that the commander, Jim Lovell, and the lunar module pilot, Fred Haise, were immune. The command module pilot, Ken Mattingly, was not.
His backup, Jack Swigert, took his place after two days of intensive training in the simulators. They launched on time, at thirteen minutes past two in the afternoon, Eastern time, on the eleventh of April. On the way up, the centre engine of the second stage shut down early. The other four burned thirty-four seconds longer, and the spacecraft reached orbit almost exactly where it was meant to be.
That was the only serious problem of the launch.
Forty-six hours in, a routine stir of the oxygen tanks sent the gauge on tank number two off the top of its scale. It stayed there. Nobody yet knew what it meant. Fifty-five hours in, the crew finished a television broadcast from inside the lunar module.
Minutes later, Mission Control read up one more routine request.
Current reached the fans inside tank two. About ninety seconds later, the spacecraft's telemetry went silent for less than two seconds, an alarm sounded for low voltage on one of the two main electrical buses, and the crew heard a loud bang. At that moment the commander was stowing the television camera, the lunar module pilot was coming back through the tunnel, and the command module pilot was in the left-hand couch. For several minutes, the controllers could not tell whether they had a real failure or bad instruments.
Attention stayed on the electrical system. Two of the three fuel cells, which made the spacecraft's electricity from oxygen and hydrogen, had lost their oxygen and stopped. Then the instruments on tank two were switched back on, and it was seen that the tank had failed. In the words of the board that investigated it, the extreme seriousness of the situation became clear.
Fourteen minutes after the bang, looking out through the hatch, the commander reported that they were venting something into space. Oxygen tank one was leaking too. An hour and a half after the accident it was obvious the leak could not be stopped, and CAPCOM said the word that decided the next four days. By fifty-eight hours and forty minutes the lunar module was powered up, its guidance system lined up from the command module's, and the command module shut down.
Its only power now was a set of batteries normally used just for reentry.
The service module's big engine was not used again. It needed too much power, and no one knew what the explosion had done to it. Instead, the lunar module's descent engine, built to land on the Moon, was used instead: first to put the spacecraft back on a path that would loop round the Moon and return by itself, then two hours after the closest approach to the Moon, to bring them home sooner, to a splashdown in the Pacific. A third burn corrected the aim.
Then there was the air. The lunar module's own filters could remove carbon dioxide for about fifty-three hours. The flight needed eighty-five. The command module carried far more filter canisters than that, but they were made for the command module.
Engineers in Houston worked out a way to make them work in the lunar module, from plastic bags, a cardboard cue card and grey tape, and read the instructions up to the crew.
Nearly five hours before splashdown, the crew let the service module go. For the first time they saw what had happened: one whole side was missing. An hour before reentry they released the lunar module. CAPCOM said: farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.
At one hundred and forty-two hours, fifty-four minutes and forty-one seconds, the command module Odyssey came down in the Pacific, within sight of the recovery ship, the U S S Iwo Jima.
Two months later, the Apollo thirteen Review Board reported what had happened. Inside tank two, two small switches protected the heaters from overheating. In flight the heaters ran on twenty-eight volts, and the switches were rated for thirty. At the Kennedy Space Center, the heaters were run on sixty-five.
Two weeks before launch, when the tank would not empty normally after a countdown test, its heaters were left on for about eight hours. The switches welded shut. Wiring near the heaters may have reached about a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and its Teflon insulation was badly damaged. From then on, the board found, the tank was dangerous whenever it held oxygen and was powered.
On the evening of the thirteenth of April, the crew was asked to stir it. There had been signs. The tank's temperature reading went off the top of its scale early in that ground test, and the control panel had meters that would have shown whether the switches opened. These indications were not detected at the time.
The board wrote that NASA, the prime contractor and the supplier of the tank were not fully aware of the extent of this hazard.
What follows is the record itself, in the order it happened. First, the end of the television broadcast from the lunar module, fifty-five hours into the flight. NASA: Apollo 13 television transmission from the lunar module, 13 April 1970. This is the CAPCOM's loop in Mission Control: the voice channel to the spacecraft, with the flight director's channel heard underneath it.
Fifty-five hours and fifty-two minutes.
CAPCOM: 13, we've got one more item for you, when you get a chance. We'd like you to stir up your cryo tanks. In addition, I have shaft and trunnion Crew: Okay. CAPCOM: - for looking at the Comet Bennett, if you need it.
Crew: Okay. Stand by. Okay, Houston - I believe we've had a problem here. CAPCOM: This is Houston.
Say again, please. Crew: Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a MAIN B BUS UNDERVOLT. CAPCOM: Roger.
MAIN B UNDERVOLT. Okay, stand by, 13. We're looking at it. Crew: Okay.
Right now, Houston, the voltage is is looking good. And we had a pretty large bang associated with the CAUTION AND WARNING there. And as I recall, MAIN B was the one that had an amp spike on it once before. CAPCOM: Roger, Fred.
Crew: In the interim here, we're starting to go ahead and button up the tunnel again. CAPCOM: Roger. Crew: Yes. That jolt must have rocked the sensor on see now O2 QUANTITY 2.
It was oscillating down around 20 to 60 percent. Now it's full-scale high again. CAPCOM: Roger. Crew: And, Houston, we had a RESTART on our computer and we had a PGNCS light and the RESTART RESET.
CAPCOM: Roger. RESTART and a PGNCS light. RESET on a PGNCS, RESET Crew: Okay. And we're looking at our S SERVICE MODULE RCS HELIUM 1.
We have B is barber poled and D is barber poled, HELIUM 2, D is barber pole, and SECONDARY PROPELLANTS, I have A and C barber pole. BMAG temperatures? Okay, AC 2 is showing zip. I'm going to try to reconfigure on that, Jack.
CAPCOM: Roger. Crew: Yes. We got a MAIN BUS A UNDERVOLT now, too, showing. CAPCOM: MAIN A UNDERVOLT.
Crew: It's reading about 25-1/2, MAIN B is reading zip right now. And, Houston, Odyssey. CAPCOM: Stand by 1, Jim. 13, Houston.
We'd like you to attempt to reconnect fuel cell 1 to MAIN A and fuel cell 3 to MAIN B. Verify that quad Delta is open. Crew: Okay, Houston. I'm showing I tried to reset and fuel cell 1 and 3 are both showing gray flags, but they are both showing zip on the flows.
CAPCOM: We copy. Crew: Okay, Houston. Are you still reading 13? CAPCOM: That's affirmative.
We're reading you. We're trying to come up with some good ideas here for you. Crew: Okay. Let me give you some reading in the interim to help MAIN A voltage, Jack.
I've got BUS TIE AC on. CAPCOM: Say again, Fred. Crew: In the interim, to help out MAIN A voltage, I've got MAIN BUS TIE BAT AC on. Or would you rather accept the 25 volts we are seeing on MAIN A?
CAPCOM: Okay. BUS TIE AC on. 13, Houston. We need OMNI Charlie, please.
Crew: You got it. CAPCOM: 13, Houston. We'd like you to verify couple of readings for us. We would like the nitrogen pressure on fuel cell 1.
We need the oxygen pressure on fuel cell 2. Crew: Okay. Nitrogen on 1 and oxygen on 2. Is that correct?
CAPCOM: Negative. Oxygen on 3. Crew: Okay. Okay.
The systems test 1-A says zip. And 2 Baker, which is 3 oxygen, says 0.6. CAPCOM: 2 Baker says 0.6, and say again the other one. Crew: Fuel cell 1 nitrogen reads zero.
CAPCOM: Roger. Zero. 13, Houston. We'd like you to open circuit fuel cell 1; leave 2 and 3 as is.
Crew: Okay. I'll get to work on that. And, Jack, our O2 quantity number 2 tank is reading zero. Did you get that?
CAPCOM: O2 QUANTITY number 2 is zero. Crew: That's AC, okay. Yes, that's good AC and it looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something out into the into space.
CAPCOM: Roger. We copy your venting. Crew: It's a gas of some sort. Okay.
Fuel cell 1, you just wanted it off the line now, Jack, is that right? CAPCOM: We just wanted you to open the circuit on fuel cell 1. Crew: Okay. She's off the line.
Just under an hour and a half after the accident. Fuel cell one is being shut down, and the last oxygen tank is still leaking.
CAPCOM: Jack, stand by on the fuel Crew: On that last confirmation. Okay. CAPCOM: Roger. We're We're giving you one last Crew: We want to just get one last confirmation.
CAPCOM: Okay, Jack. We're getting that last confirmation. Stand by, please. Crew: Okay.
CAPCOM: Okay, 13. We verify that we want you to close down shut down fuel cell 1, close REACs valve. Crew: Roger - Okay. - - fuel cell 1; close the REACs valve.
Fuel REACs valve on fuel cell 1 is closed. Okay, Jack. I can confirm step 2. The fuel cell shutdown procedure is complete for fuel cell 1.
CAPCOM: Roger. 13, we recommend that you enable BD roll in the DAP. Over. Crew: Okay.
Will do BD roll in the DAP. CAPCOM: 13, Houston. We're working on the big dish now, so turn the HIGH GAIN POWER switch off, please. Crew: Okay.
Okay, Jack. When we got the loud bang, we got also a restart. Did you copy that? Is does GUIDO want anything, a VERB 74 or anything done with the CMC?
CAPCOM: Stand by. 13, Houston. We're ready with a VERB 74 now, please. Crew: Coming down at you.
Okay, Jack. It looks like O2 tank 1 pressure is just a hair over 200. CAPCOM: We confirm that here and the temperature also confirms it. Crew: Okay.
Does it look like it's still going down? CAPCOM: It's slowly going to zero, and we're starting to think about the LM lifeboat. Crew: Yes. That's what we're thinking about, too.
You want me to do a quick P52? It kind of looks like We've been talking it over, and it kind of looks like we'd probably aline our plats LM platform with our platform and then power down the CM, and keep the LM powered up doing a DPS whatever DPS burns you give us? CAPCOM: 13, we're not going to concern ourselves at the moment with a DPS burn. It's going to be some time before we'd get to that; but we're working on other procedures to give you, which will allow us to use the LM systems.
Over. Crew: Okay. Real fine. CAPCOM: Apollo 13, Houston.
We'd like to charge battery A now. Crew: Charge battery A. Roger. CAPCOM: And, Jack, in regard to your question about the P52 and LM platform, it's There's no need to worry about that now.
We wouldn't be using the LM platform for until about 79 hours, so let's go as is on the platform for now. Over. Crew: Okay. We understand.
Okay, Jack. And, Jack, we've turned off the waste dump heater. If you're going to consider dumping any more waste water, we probably ought to do it while the duct is warm there. CAPCOM: Roger.
Stand by, Jack. Crew: Okay. CAPCOM: Okay, Jack. Let's keep the water; no need for a dump right now.
Crew: All right. Seventy-nine hours and twenty-seven minutes. Two hours after passing behind the Moon, the lunar module's descent engine is fired to speed the return.
CAPCOM: Aquarius, 2 minutes and 40 seconds to go on the mark. MARK. Or that was Stand by. Crew: What was that mark?
CAPCOM: Stand by. That was incorrect. Three minutes Counting down to 3 minutes, and I'll give you a mark, and I'll take into consideration 2 seconds. MARK.
Crew: Roger. We got you. CAPCOM: One minute. Crew: Roger.
We're burning 40 percent. CAPCOM: Houston copies. Crew: One hundred percent. CAPCOM: Roger.
Aquarius, Houston. You're looking good. Crew: Roger. CAPCOM: Aquarius, you were looking good at 2 minutes.
Still looking good. Crew: Two minutes. Roger. CAPCOM: Aquarius, you're GO at 3 minutes.
Crew: Aquarius. Roger. CAPCOM: Don't forget DESCENT REG 1, off; 10 seconds to go. Crew: SHUTDOWN.
CAPCOM: Roger. Shut down. Crew: Are you reading our 1640, Houston? CAPCOM: Roger.
We're reading it. Crew: We'll proceed. Here's our residuals. CAPCOM: Roger.
Very small. Good burn, Aquarius. Crew: Go ahead. CAPCOM: I say, that was a good burn.
Crew: Roger. And now we want to power down as soon as possible. CAPCOM: Roger. Understand.
Crew: Houston, Aquarius. CAPCOM: Go ahead. Crew: Suggest maybe you just read off the circuit breakers you want us to power down. As you did yesterday, for us.
CAPCOM: Okay. We have a procedure ready to send up to you here in about 2 minutes. Let us know when you're all ready to take it. Crew: Okay.
Okay. Is it going to be better to write this on a blank page, Vance, or can we use some portion of the powerdown list there in the contingency book that already exists. CAPCOM: Stand by 1. Ninety hours.
CAPCOM reads up the instructions for connecting the command module's carbon dioxide canisters to the lunar module.
Crew: Houston, Aquarius. CAPCOM: Aquarius, Houston. Go ahead. Crew: Okay.
Jack's up with me now and you all procedure for making these lithium hydroxide devices, and soon as he gets on his helmet, he'll be ready to copy, and then he'll get started making one. CAPCOM: Roger that, Jim. Understand Crew: On second thought CAPCOM: Go ahead. Crew: I'll give Jack the headset for a while and he'll copy down your instructions.
CAPCOM: Okay, Jim. I didn't copy your second thought. Over. Crew: I'll give Jack the headset and let him copy the instructions.
CAPCOM: Okay, Jim. The way I thought it might be best to do it would be to have you gather the equipment and let us talk you through your procedure while you do it. Now, maybe you could give Jack the headset and and get the equipment together, and we'll talk you through the procedure. I think it'll be a little easier to do that way than if you tried to copy it all down and then go do it.
Crew: Okay. Do you have any equipment listed? I'll just get it and give it to him and I can just sit here where I am. CAPCOM: Okay.
I think the equipment you'll need will be two command module lithium hydroxide canisters, a roll of the gray tape, the two LCGs, because we're going to use the bags from the LCGs, and one one LM cue card one of those cardboard cue cards which you will cut off about an inch and a half out from the ring. Now, I think that's all we'll need. Over. Crew: Okay.
Okay, Houston. Hello, Houston. CAPCOM: Go ahead, Jim. Crew: Okay.
That's two lithium hydroxide canisters, one roll of that special gray tape, two LCGs which we're going to use the bags from, one LM cue card and CAPCOM: Okay. That's affirmative, Jim. If you'll just cut the cue card, which is a handy piece of stiff paper the right size, about an inch and a half from the rings. Just cut off the ring holes, in other words, and you'll have a card about 11 inches long and probably 6 inches wide, something like that.
Crew: Okay, I'll have Jack gather up the stuff. CAPCOM: Okay. Crew: ... that roll of gray tape.
... Okay. and plastic bags. Yes.
Bring it down here. One LM cue card. I get that. Okay.
I got the canisters. Okay, Houston; Aquarius. CAPCOM: Yes. Aquarius, Houston.
Go ahead. Crew: We have gathered the materials, and I can put Jack on the headset and he can copy the instructions do you see any need for or should I copy it to give them to him, or do you think they're too detailed? CAPCOM: Why don't you put him on the headsets, Jim, and I'll read it out to him. Crew: Okay.
Okay, Joe. CAPCOM: Okay, Jack. Did anybody ever tell you that you got a 60-day extension on your income tax. Over.
Yes. I think I think somebody said that when you are out of your country, you get a 60-day extension. Okay; right. Okay.
I'm ready to start into the procedure. When you answer me back, speak up speak up into the microphone, because our downlink is pretty noisy. The first thing we want you to do, and we'll do this on one canister, and then let you go ahead and repeat it on the second. So take one of the LCGs and cut off the outer bag.
By cutting along one the heat seals; do it carefully and close to the heat seal, because we may have to use the outer bag if we damage the inner bag. So go ahead and do that, and then we'll do the next step. Crew: Okay. Take an LCG, cut the outer bag by the heat seal.
Be careful not to damage the inner bag. Right? CAPCOM: Right. Just cut along one side.
Crew: Hey, Houston, Odyssey or Aquarius. We've done that. CAPCOM: Okay, Jack. Now now remove the inner bag from the outer bag, and cut the inner bag, also, along one of the heat seals down one side.
Crew: Okay. Remove the inner bag from the outer bag, cut the inner bag along the heat seal along one side. CAPCOM: Okay. That's correct.
Do that, and report. Crew: Okay, Joe. We've got that done. CAPCOM: Okay, Jack.
Now you can put the LCG itself; that is, take it out of the inner bag, put it in the outer bag, and stow it some place; we recommend U-1, but you can stow it wherever it's convenient. Crew: ... outer bag and stow it back in Okay, Joe. We've got that.
CAPCOM: Okay. Now pick up one of the lithium hydroxide canisters, and let me describe which end is which. It's approximately square on one one of the vented flat ends, has the strap, and that end we call the top, the end opposite we call the bottom. Is that clear?
Over. Crew: Right. Okay. I've got it, Joe.
CAPCOM: Okay. Now then, we're we want you to take the tape and cut out two pieces about 3 feet long, or a good arm's length, and what you're what we want you to do with them is to make two belts around the sides of the canister, one belt near the top and one belt near the bottom, with the sticky side out; wrap it around, sticky side out, as tight as possible. It'll probably take both of you to get it nice and snug. Over.
One hundred and thirty-eight hours. The service module has just been released.
Crew: And SM JETT at 138:12. CAPCOM: Roger. Understand; that's SM JETT, 138:12. It's not that time critical, Jim.
Crew: Can we do it at any time, Joe? CAPCOM: I think so, but let me check. Aquarius, Houston. That's affirmative.
You can jettison the service module when you are ready; no big rush, but any time. Crew: Okay. Sounds good. CAPCOM: Aquarius, Houston.
Crew: Go ahead. CAPCOM: Roger. We recommend that you use the AGS for the separation maneuver, because we'd like to get the proper weight in for the DAP before we use the PGNS again. Crew: Roger.
We will. Stand by. SM SEP. CAPCOM: Copy that.
Crew: Do you see it, Jack? CAPCOM: Okay, Aquarius; Houston. I recommend you terminate AVERAGE G. Over.
Crew: Okay, I've got her, Houston. CAPCOM: Beautiful, beautiful. And for you information, Jim, you'll be coming up on an RCS caution light for helium. No sweat.
Over. Crew: And there's one whole side of that spacecraft missing. CAPCOM: Is that right? Crew: Right by the Look out there, will you?
Right by the high gain antenna, the whole panel is blown out, almost from the base to the engine. CAPCOM: Copy that. Crew: Yes, it looks like it got to the SPS bell, too, Houston. CAPCOM: Think it zinged the SPS engine bell, huh?
Crew: That's the way it looks; unless that's just a dark brown streak. It's really a mess. CAPCOM: Okay, Jim. We'd like you to get some pictures, but we want you to conserve RCS.
Don't make unnecessary maneuvers. And, Jim; Houston. In particular, of course, we don't want any translation maneuvers. Crew: Right on that.
Joe, you realize that when I went up to the SM SEP attitude, I had to use TTCA to do it. CAPCOM: That's affirm. We know that. That's okay.
Crew: All right. She's drifting right down in front of our windows now, Houston. CAPCOM: Okay. Crew: Okay, Joe, I'm now looking down the SPS bell, and it looks looks okay on the inside; maybe it is just a streak.
CAPCOM: Okay. Copy that, Fred. Was the bell deformed on the outside or just nicked or what? Crew: I think the explosion, from what I could see, Joe, had had stained it.
I don't know whether it did any actual deformation or not. CAPCOM: Okay. Crew: Man, that's unbelievable! And, Joe, looks like a lot of a lot of debris is just hanging out the side near the S-band antenna.
CAPCOM: Roger, Jim. One hundred and forty-one hours and thirty minutes. The lunar module is released.
Crew: Okay, Houston. Do we have a GO for PYRO ARM? CAPCOM: Odyssey, Houston. We can give you a GO if you'll put the LOGIC ON momentarily first.
Crew: Okay. The SECS LOGIC is on. CAPCOM: Okay. Just copied that, and you are GO for PYRO ARM.
Crew: Real fine. 10 seconds. Five. LM jettison.
CAPCOM: Okay, copy that. Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you. Watch gimbal lock there, Jack. Crew: Yes, we did.
Reentry. As planned for every return, radio contact is lost for several minutes. Mission Control waits.
CAPCOM: Odyssey, Houston. Over. Crew: Go ahead. CAPCOM: Okay.
LOS in about a minute or a minute and a half; in entry attitude, we'd like OMNI Charlie, and welcome home. Over. Crew: Thank you. CAPCOM: Odyssey, Houston standing by.
Over. Crew: Okay, Joe. CAPCOM: Okay. We read you, Jack.
We're looking at the weather on TV and it looks just as advertised; real good. Odyssey, Houston standing by for your NOUN 67 when you get it. Over. Crew: We got two good drogues.
CAPCOM: Roger that. Crew: ... thousand. CAPCOM: Odyssey, Houston.
We show you on the mains. It really looks great. Got you on television, babe. Recovery: Iwo Jima Control, this is Swim 2.
I have a visual bearing 182. Iwo Jima; Roger. Iwo Jima Control, this is Recovery. I have a visual bearing 190.
Over. Iwo Jima; Roger. Iwo Jima, Swim 1 has a visual at 110. Iwo Jima; Roger.
Apollo 13, Apollo 13, this is Recovery. Over. Apollo 13 Crew: Go ahead. - see you loud and clear going through 5000 Recovery: Roger, Apollo 13.
This is Recovery and your chutes look good. Apollo 13, this is Recovery. We observed your RCS burn. Over.
This is Recovery. Apollo 13 is descending through 2000 feet. Okay. Our altimeter concurs.
Iwo Jima; Roger. Out. Apollo 13 and Recovery passing through 1000 feet. Iwo Jima; Roger.
Through 500 feet. Swim 1 on station. - - 2 is on station. Photo 1's on station.
Photo 1 observes splashdown at this time. 1 pickup Roger. Photo-1. Splashdown at this time.
The three chutes are displaced. They're in the water. The recovery, in NASA's photographs.
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