Episode 68: Houston, We've Had a Problem (The Apollo Program, Part XIII)

After Jack Swigert replaced Ken Mattingly just two days before the flight, the "official" Apollo 13 crew photos became a little more casual that those of past missions.

The Apollo 13 mission insignia depicts the Greek Sun god Apollo, with three horses pulling his chariot across the face of the moon. This was to symbolize the Apollo flights bring the light of knowledge to to all people as Apollo was to have brought the light of the sun to all people in Greek mythology. The mission motto: Ex luna, scientia (From the moon, knowledge) appears on the lower felt portion of the insignia. Lovell adapted the motto of his alma mater, the US Naval Academy, which is Ex scientia, tridens (From knowledge, sea power). The mission number appears in roman numerals. The patch did not have to be modified after Sweigart replaced Mattingly, as it is one of only two Apollo mission insignias without the crew’s name – the other being Apollo 11. 

On the second day of the mission, an onboard explosion changed the entire focus of the mission form one of landing on the moon to one of figuring out how to get the three astronauts back to Earth alive. It wasn't until just before reentering Earth's atmosphere, when the service module portion of the command module was jettisoned that the astronauts saw just how much physical damage the explosion had caused.

The explosion happened about 56 hours into the mission. It was possible to get the astronauts back to Earth without journeying all the way to the Moon but without knowning the exact extend of the damage to the command module, it was safer to plot a 4-day return route that had then pass behind the far side of the moon before venturing back to Earth.

One of the dangers of the Apolo 13 return flight wasthe accumulation of carbon dioxide in the lunar module where the astronauts had to evacuate too after the explosion. The CO2 scrubbers in the lunar laner were designed to support two astronauts for two days, not three astronauts for four days, and dangerous amounts of CO2 began to accumulate. The scrubbers in the lunar lander were designed to go into a cylindrical slot and the extra scrubbers in the command module were designed for a square slot.

Using only the materials available to the astroanuts in the spaceship, engineers on Earth MacGyvered a way to use a square CO2 scrubber with a cylindrical filter slot and coarbon dyoxide levels in the spaceship quickly fell back to near zero.

Another harship of the mission was that to conserve electricity that would be vital to the reentry process, many systems, including the heating sytem, had to be shut donw after passing around the moon and some places in the spaceship reached near-freezing temeratures and the astronauts had to spend much of their free time fighting the frigid condition. Showing their professionalism, the crew dud not complain about any of the hardships they faced - including poor Fred Haise who developed a painful urinary track infection.

 

If the accident had happened after the lunar surface activity poriton of the mission, the astronauts would have had no chance of making it home alive becasue the lunar module would have already been jettisoned. As it was, Aquarius served as a lifeboat and got the crew safely back to Earth orbit before it was jettisoned just prior to reentry.

An unknown passenger on an Air New Zealand flight from Fiji to Aukland snapped this picture of the disgarded service module and lunar module reentering Earth atmosphere. Both burned up on reentry and the remianing debris fell into the Pacific Ocean. Several other flight in the area also reporting seeing these crafts reentering.

Against all odds, the Apollo 13 mission managed to return to Earth and the three astronauts safely splashed down in the vecinity of American Samoa.