The Apollo13 space capsule was launched 52 years ago, on April 11, 1970, from NASA headquarters in Florida to go to the Moon. Actually everything was normal. The USA wanted to gain an overwhelming advantage against its strong rival, the Soviet Union, by setting foot on the world's satellite for the third time.
The team had prepared for this mission for months. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert crossed the atmospheric boundary and passed the first images to the Houston space center in Texas. They shared the magnificent view of the Moon, which they aim to set foot from the window of the capsule.
Then the sentence that went down in history that shook the whole world came out of the ship's commander, Astronaut Jim Lovell: "Houston we have a problem". After this confession, which had the effect of a cold shower and caused great panic, the "world's most successful failure story" rescue operation began.
On Apollo 13, the oxygen tank was empty, after which almost three-quarters of the spacecraft, including its communications equipment, became inoperable. Life support and electrical units were largely destroyed by the explosion.
Houston started to work feverishly to fix the malfunctions, the project to set foot on the Moon was canceled and the new goal was to bring the three astronauts back to Earth safely. The biggest problem was the communication was not working. The computer was also disabled. The heating device was not responding. Food stock and water were adequately adjusted for the mission. It had to be used sparingly. Then Apollo 13 suddenly disappeared. The other two astronauts, Fred Haise and John Swigert, first tried to reconnect with Houston by their own means. Minutes, hours, even days passed. The biggest danger was the risk of the vehicle not being able to withstand the heat and exploding while entering the atmosphere on the possible return route. All sorts of options for the time trial rescue were tried in Houston.
On the third day, the radio malfunction was fixed. Now, with the instructions from the center, the vital repairs were started first. Destroyed tools were being repaired slowly, but at least sufficiently to bring about a return to Earth. Preparations have been made. The center gave the three astronauts their duties and directions. When Apollo 13 crossed the atmospheric boundary, there was a big round of applause at NASA headquarters in Houston. The story of "the world's most successful failure" was written. The space shuttle crashed hard into the Pacific Ocean. The date was April 17, 1970. On the deck of the Navy ship "Ivo Lima", the three heroic astronauts were greeted with cries of victory as if they had stepped on the Moon. John Swigert, who was later elected senator, died of cancer. Commanders Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, on the other hand, are still at their retirement age, telling about the Apollo 13 adventure with the same enthusiasm at universities. The Apollo 13 spacecraft, which was hit hard while entering the atmosphere, is on display at the "Odyssey Cosmosphere" museum in Hutchinson, Kensas, today.