Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon, and returned safely to Earth on April 17, 1970. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as lunar module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.
The oxygen tank failure was caused by accidental ignition of damaged wire insulation inside it during a routine tank stirring operation. The SM soon lost all its oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electrical power. Command module (CM) power had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the lunar module (LM) as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing cancelled, mission controllers worked to bring the crew home alive.
Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two days, Mission Control in Houston improvised new procedures so it could support three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship caused by limited power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of potable water. There was a critical need to adapt the CM's cartridges for the carbon dioxide removal system to work in the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution. The astronauts' peril briefly caused renewed interest in the Apollo program, with tens of millions watching the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean by television.
An investigative review board found fault with the testing of the oxygen tank and the fact that Teflon was placed inside it; recommended changes, including minimizing the use of potentially combustible items inside the tank, were made for Apollo 14. The story of Apollo 13 has been dramatized multiple times, most notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13.
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They flew to Hawaii, where President Richard Nixon awarded them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.[125] They stayed overnight, and then were flown back to Houston.[126]
En route to Honolulu, President Nixon went to Houston to award the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[127] He originally planned to give NASA administrator Dr. Thomas O. Paine the award, but Paine recommended the mission operations team.[128]
Shepard was the oldest U.S. astronaut when he made his trip aboard Apollo 14.[9][10] He is the only astronaut from Project Mercury (the original Mercury Seven astronauts) to reach the Moon. Another of the original seven, Gordon Cooper, had (as Apollo 10's backup commander) tentatively been scheduled to command the mission, but according to author Andrew Chaikin, his casual attitude toward training, along with problems with NASA hierarchy (reaching all the way back to the Mercury-Atlas 9 flight), resulted in his removal.
The mission was a personal triumph for Shepard, who had battled back from Ménière's disease which grounded him from 1964 to 1968. He and his crew were originally scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but in 1969 NASA officials switched the scheduled crews for Apollos 13 and 14. This was done to allow Shepard more time to train for his flight, as he had been grounded for four years.[11]
Apollo 14
Shepard was the oldest U.S. astronaut when he made his trip aboard Apollo 14.[9][10] He is the only astronaut from Project Mercury (the original Mercury Seven astronauts) to reach the Moon. Another of the original seven, Gordon Cooper, had (as Apollo 10's backup commander) tentatively been scheduled to command the mission, but according to author Andrew Chaikin, his casual attitude toward training, along with problems with NASA hierarchy (reaching all the way back to the Mercury-Atlas 9 flight), resulted in his removal.
The mission was a personal triumph for Shepard, who had battled back from Ménière's disease which grounded him from 1964 to 1968. He and his crew were originally scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but in 1969 NASA officials switched the scheduled crews for Apollos 13 and 14. This was done to allow Shepard more time to train for his flight, as he had been grounded for four years.[11]
Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the "H missions," targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks.
Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on Sunday, January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 p.m. EST. Liftoff was delayed forty minutes and two seconds, due to launch site weather restrictions, the first such delay in the Apollo program.[4]
Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro highlands – originally the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. During the two lunar EVAs, 94.35 pounds (42.80 kg) of Moon rocks were collected,[5] and several scientific experiments were performed. Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought with him. Shepard and Mitchell spent 331⁄2 hours on the Moon, with almost 91⁄2 hours of EVA.
In the aftermath of Apollo 13, several modifications had been made to the service module electrical power system to prevent a repeat of that accident, including a redesign of the oxygen tanks and the addition of a third tank. The launch had been scheduled for October 1, 1970,[6] and was delayed about four months.[7]
While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the command and service module Kitty Hawk, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon, including the landing site of the future Apollo 16 mission. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return, resulting in the so-called Moon trees.
Shepard and Mitchell successfully lifted Antares off the Moon to dock with the command module and, after a total of 34 lunar orbits,[8] the ship was flown back to Earth where the three astronauts landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.
Alan Shepard and the American flag on the Moon, Apollo 14, February 1971 (photo by Edgar Mitchell)
| |
| Mission type | Crewed lunar landing (H) |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA[1] |
| COSPAR ID |
|
| SATCAT no. | |
| Mission duration | 9 days, 1 minute, 58 seconds |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft |
|
| Manufacturer | CSM: North American Rockwell LM: Grumman |
| Launch mass | 102,084 pounds (46,305 kg) |
| Landing mass | 11,481 pounds (5,208 kg) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | |
| Callsign |
|
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | January 31, 1971, 21:03:02 UTC |
| Rocket | Saturn V SA-509 |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | USS New Orleans |
| Landing date | February 9, 1971, 21:05:00 UTC |
| Landing site | South Pacific Ocean 27°1′S 172°39′W |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Selenocentric |
| Periselene altitude | 16.9 kilometers (9.1 nmi) |
| Aposelene altitude | 108.9 kilometers (58.8 nmi) |
| Period | 120 minutes |
| Lunar orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | Command and service module |
| Orbital insertion | February 4, 1971, 06:59:42 UTC |
| Orbital departure | February 7, 1971, 01:39:04 UTC |
| Orbits | 34 |
| Lunar lander | |
| Spacecraft component | Lunar module |
| Landing date | February 5, 1971, 09:18:11 UTC |
| Return launch | February 6, 1971, 18:48:42 UTC |
| Landing site | Fra Mauro 3.64530°S 17.47136°W |
| Sample mass | 42.80 kilograms (94.35 lb) |
| Surface EVAs | 2 |
| EVA duration |
|
| Docking with LM | |
| Docking date | February 1, 1971, 01:57:58 UTC |
| Undocking date | February 5, 1971, 04:50:43 UTC |
| Docking with LM ascent stage | |
| Docking date | February 6, 1971, 20:35:52 UTC |
| Undocking date | February 6, 1971, 22:48:00 UTC |
  Roosa, Shepard, Mitchell | |
