The Apollo 13 Spacecraft

At 02:13:00 pm EST, on 11th April, 1970, Apollo 13 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as the third mission to land on moon. It was intended to land on Fra Mauro, which is a lunar crater, 80km in diameter and named after a famous map maker of the 15th century. Unfortunately, Apollo 13 did not land on the moon, due to some technical failures and re-entered (the earth's atmosphere), on 17th April, 1970. Apollo 13 was the thirteenth spacecraft of the Apollo specification. Apart from a few minor changes, Apollo 13 spacecraft was designed on similar lines as Apollo 12. James A. Lowell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise were the three brave men who led this mission.

Modules of the Apollo 13 Spacecraft

The Apollo 13 spacecraft had three important modules. These modules were the service module, the command module and the lunar module. The command module and the service module were together known as Odyssey; the lunar module was known as Aquarius. Some of these modules were re-designed after the Apollo 13 mishap. The three modules are described in brief as follows:

Service Module

The service module was attached at the end of the command module. As the name suggests, this module provided service, to the command module and other parts of the spacecraft. This module provided oxygen, water and power to the spacecraft. The service module was divided into six sections, and had a diameter of 3.9m and a length of 7.6m. It acted as the primary propulsion and guiding system of the spacecraft. The six sections of the service module consisted of three 31-cell hydrogen oxygen fuel cell, two cryogenic oxygen cells, two hydrogen cells and two tanks each for fuel and oxidizer. The cryogenic oxygen tank No. 2, in this module, exploded due to a faulty tank-heater thermostat. The faulty tank-heater thermostat led to the increase in temperature, which burned the insulation of the wires. When the tank fan was turned on, the uninsulated wires caught fire, resulting in an explosion in the cryogenic oxygen tank. The service module of Apollo 13 spacecraft was rendered useless after this blast. However, the service module was not detached from the spacecraft, until the re-entry.

Command Module

Command module was the compartment for the astronauts. It had the capacity to house three astronauts. The command module also comprised spacecraft operation and re-entry equipment. It was a pressure vessel, which was conical in shape, with a diameter of 3.9m and height 3.65m. The command module was divided into three compartments. The first compartment consisted of three main parachutes, two drogue parachutes and pilot mortar chutes. The drogue parachutes were used to decelerate the speed of a fast-moving object. The pilot mortar chutes were used to land on the Earth. The second compartment was situated at the tail of the module. It consisted of propellant tanks, reaction control engines, wiring and plumbing. The third compartment was the crew compartment, which included couches for the crew members. The command module had five windows. One window for each astronaut, one to the access hatch and the other facing in the front of the command module chamber.

Lunar Module

The lunar module was actually designed for landing on the moon and was to act as the base station for doing research there. However, the service module of Apollo 13 spacecraft failed to provide the necessary service, due to the blast in the oxygen tank. Lunar module, then, acted as a back-up system for the mission. The command module services were preserved for the re-entry.

The Mission Crew

The possibility that the crew onboard would reach back to the Earth safely, was deemed unlikely. It was the collective effort of the ground crew, and crew in the spaceship, that made it possible. James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise were the three astronauts on the spaceship.

James Lovell

James Lovell joined the the space program at NASA, in 1962. He worked for the Gemini program initially and then joined the Apollo missions. He was assigned the Gemini 4, 7, 9, 12 missions. After the suspension of the Gemini program, he joined the Apollo missions, where he was a crew member of Apollo 8, 11 and 13. Jim Lovell was the mission commander of Apollo 13 spacecraft.

John Swigert

John Swigert was the command module pilot of Apollo 13 spacecraft. Earlier, John Swigert was the member of the back-up crew. He replaced Ken Mattingly in the Apollo 13 mission, to avoid complications that may arise as Ken was found to have no immunity against German measles. When Apollo 13 returned safely to the Earth, John Swigert was awarded with Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Fred Haise

Fred Haise was the lunar module pilot of the Apollo 13 spacecraft. He joined NASA in 1966. He worked as the back-up lunar module pilot for the Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 missions. Fred Haise, then for the first time, went aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft.

The Apollo 13 Accident

The accident that took place on Apollo 13 spacecraft, emptied the stores of oxygen and water from the service module. Within three hours, all the oxygen and water was lost. The propulsion mechanism was also rendered useless after this accident. The lunar module acted as a substitute to the service module and helped the crew members of Apollo 13 to finally land on Earth. The Apollo 13 spacecraft proved to be a failure in its expedition to land on the moon. However, in spite of the severity of the technical failure, the expertise, knowledge and skill of all the crew members, made it possible for Apollo 13 to successfully land on the Earth. That makes it a 'successful failure'!