15 Questions about Apollo 13 | History

Answer: April 11, 1970

Apollo 13 was launched from launchpad 39A at Cape Canaveral on April 11, 1970 at 1:13 PM Central Time (13:13).

Answer: Ken Mattingly

Ken Mattingly was scrubbed from the mission, one week prior to launch, because he had been exposed to the measles. He was replaced by Jack Swigert as Command Module Pilot.

Answer: Fra Mauro

Apollo 15 landed at Hadley-Rille. Apollo 12 landed at the Ocean of Storms. Apollo 17 landed at Taurus-Littrow. Apollo 14 was reassigned the Fra Mauro landing site.

Answer: April 13, 1970

The event occured approximately 55 hours, 54 minutes after liftoff, at 9:07 p.m., Central Time. The control center for the mission was in Houston, Texas (Central Time Zone).

Answer: An oxygen tank exploded.

Oxygen tank #2 in the service module exploded. The explosion also damaged either oxygen tank #1 or its pipes, causing that tank to slowly vent its contents into space.

Answer: an electrical spark in a pure-oxygen environment

Oxygen tank #2 had a faulty tank-heater thermostat which never opened, causing the tank heater to stay on during the flight. The tank heated up to such an extreme temperature that the insulation was burned from the internal tank wiring. When the astronaut turned on the tank fan to stir its contents, an electrical spark arced on the bare wires, caught fire, and the oxygen rapidly burned.

The resultant pressure caused the tank to explode.

Answer: Jack Swigert

Jack Swigert first called down to mission control, saying "Hey, we've got a problem here!" Jim Lovell then followed with the famous line, "Houston, we've had a problem." (According to Jim Lovell's book, "Lost Moon", paperback, page 103. Also verified with NASA air-to-ground transcripts).

Answer: False

There were several small glitches prior to the explosion. The center engine of the S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket mysteriously cut out 132 seconds early, causing the remaining four engines to burn 32 seconds longer than normal. There were also various small problems with sensors in the hydrogen storage system.

The S-II shutdown was caused by a phenomena called "Pogo Oscillation" which was a surge in an up and down motion. A similar event had occurred on Apollo VI which was an unmanned test launch of the Saturn V which resulted in two engines shutting down.

Answer: False

The command module was not powered down until approximately 2 hours after the explosion. During those hours, the command module was running on its re-entry batteries and one barely functioning fuel cell. When oxygen tank #1 finished its slow leak into space, the last surviving fuel cell was shut down, and the crew powered down the command module to save the remaining battery power.

Answer: water

According to NASA, "Water was the main consumable concern. It was estimated that the crew would run out of water about five hours before Earth re-entry, which was calculated at around 151 hours. However, data from Apollo 11 showed that its mechanisms could survive seven or eight hours in space without water cooling.

The crew conserved water. They cut down to six ounces each per day, a fifth of normal intake, and used fruit juices; they ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when they ate at all. The crew became dehydrated throughout the flight and set a record that stood up throughout Apollo: Lovell lost fourteen pounds, and the crew lost a total of 31.5 pounds, nearly 50 percent more than any other crew. Those stringent measures resulted in the crew finishing with 28.2 pounds of water, about 9 percent of the total." (From the NASA website, http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-13/apollo-13.html).

Answer: approximately 200,000 miles

The Apollo 13 spacecraft was approximately 200,000 miles from earth when the explosion occured; they were less than 40,000 miles from the moon.

Answer: False

The device was designed at NASA in Houston, primarily by Ed Smylie, the chief of the Crew Systems Division. The directions for building the device were then transmitted to the Apollo 13 crew, who built the device from the directions.

Answer: Aquarius

The lunar module was the Aquarius; the command module was the Odyssey. Both names were chosen by Commander Lovell.

Answer: Pacific

Apollo 13 splashed down into the South Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970, at 12:07 p.m., Central Time (time zone for Houston, Texas), in the "Stable-1" (right-side up) position. The crew was then flown by helicopter to Hawaii for a special reception from President Nixon.

Answer: USS Iwo Jima

The Iwo Jima was an amphibious assault ship, commissioned on 26 August 1961. She was decommissioned 14 July 1993 after nearly 32 years of distinguished service, including a tour of duty in the Persian Gulf in 1990.