Apollo 13

Key topics

• The anatomy of the crisis: three modules and an exploded oxygen tank
• Two naval aviators and their careers before and after NASA
• Launch and the "old man's rocket"
• The bang and the realization of an aborted mission
• Simulations, an unconsidered failure, and Mission Control
• Free return, fateful timing, and the coast around the Moon
• Enduring the cold and rigging a carbon-dioxide fix
• The cause of the explosion and lessons carried forward
• Homecoming and the "successful failure"
• Leadership, legacy, and the future of exploration

Recap

Jim Lovell and Fred Haise retell the Apollo 13 mission fifty years on: the oxygen tank explosion, the lunar module turned lifeboat, and the improvised carbon dioxide fix.