11 April 1970 America launched the Apollo-13 mission with the objective of landing on the moon. Three astronauts were rapidly advancing towards the moon, but during this time something happened that forced the ground control team to conduct an extremely complex rescue mission to save all three astronauts. The spacecraft reached 400,171 km away from Earth, which was a world record. Yesterday, on 6 April at 11:26 PM, the 4 astronauts of the Artemis II mission broke this record. This story contains the complete account of the Apollo-13 mission. How exactly did a rescue mission create a world record… To understand the story of Apollo-13, go through this information once… The Apollo 13 spacecraft was primarily composed of three modules: Oxygen Tank Number 2 suddenly exploded 13 April 1970 56 hours had passed since the launch of the Apollo 13 mission. Commander James A. Lovell Jr., Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, and Command Module Pilot John L. Swigert were on board. The spacecraft had reached 320,000 km away from Earth. The crew was inspecting the landing module ‘Aquarius’ of this vehicle. The next day, Apollo 13 was to enter lunar orbit. Lovell and Haise were going to become the fifth and sixth humans to walk on the moon. Then suddenly, oxygen tank 2 of the service module exploded. Crew was instructed to move to the Lunar Module The supply of oxygen, electricity and water was cut off. Lovell reported to Mission Control. He said- “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Oxygen was leaking from the command module and fuel cells were depleting rapidly. The mission to land on the moon was cancelled. An hour after the explosion, Mission Control instructed the crew to move to the Lunar Module. It had sufficient oxygen to work with. This module was built only to transport astronauts from the Command Module orbiting in space to the lunar surface and back. Water quota reduced to one-fifth Its power supply was only enough to last 45 hours for two people. If the Apollo 13 crew was to return alive to Earth, this landing module had to bear the burden of three people for at least 90 hours. They had to cover a distance of more than 300,000 km in space. To conserve energy, the crew reduced the water quota to one-fifth. The cabin temperature was kept just a few degrees above freezing cold. The square lithium hydroxide canisters from the command module were not fitting into the round holes of the lunar module’s system. This meant that removing carbon dioxide was a major problem. Mission Control prepared a makeshift adapter using items available on the spacecraft. The Apollo crew copied their model. The navigation system installed in it was also very basic. Apollo 13 set a distance record from Earth on April 15 On April 14, Apollo 13 orbited the Moon. Swigert and Haise took pictures and Lovell discussed the most difficult maneuver with Mission Control. This was a five-minute engine burn, which would give the LM enough speed to return home before running out of power. Two hours after orbiting the far side of the Moon, the crew fired up the landing module’s small descent engine. Apollo 13 was on its way back home. On April 15, 1970, Apollo 13 was on the far side of the Moon, 254 km from its surface and 4,00,171 km from Earth’s surface. Mission Control feared the spacecraft’s heat shield was damaged On April 17, the command module was activated. One hour before entering Earth’s atmosphere, the landing module was separated from the command module. Around 1 PM in the afternoon, the spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere. Mission Control feared the spacecraft’s heat shield was damaged. They waited four minutes without any radio contact with the crew. Then, Apollo 13’s parachutes appeared. All three astronauts landed safely in the Pacific Ocean. In this way, a world record was also accidentally set in this mission and all three astronauts returned to Earth.
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