#CapCut NASA’s Apollo 13 was launched via the Saturn V rocket on April 11th 1970 at 7:13pm from Kennedy Space Center. Manned by 3 astronauts (James Lovell, John Swigert & Fred Haise), Apollo 13 was to be the third American spacecraft to land on the moon. However, only 56 hours after the mission began, a major malfunction occured due to an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank No.2 in the service module. The explosion damaged a valve in oxygen tank No.1, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly. After the incident, the astronauts had to abort the moon-landing mission and instead devote their energy and resources into safely returning to Earth. Back home, scientists raced against time to calculate exactly how to bring the craft safely back to the planet without any fatalities. Apollo 13 was set on a ‘free-return trajectory’ (often illustrated as a figure of 8) by the TLI. This meant that the craft would take advantage of the Moon’s gravity to swiftly propel itself back towards Earth without the need of any more fuel. A huge part of this step was to activate the spacecraft’s boosters on full power for 5 minutes, in order to reduce the crew’s journey home by a whole day. This smart move possibly saved the crew’s lives. To reduce energy consumption, the astronauts switched off all non-critical systems. They were also forced to consume very little water as any spare needed to be used to cool down the landing module’s overtaxed hardware. During their time around the dark side of the moon and the rest of the way home, the crew were unable to drink or sleep and faced bitter coldness and likely complete darkness. After working non-stop for several days aboard the dying command module, the crew were successful in navigating the craft back to Earth, where they escaped the vessel through the Lunar Lander which was docked to the spacecraft and still intact. This served as their lifeboat for the remainder of the journey home. The craft broke through Earth’s atmosphere before safely splashing down on target at 1:07pm. The world watched as the 3 crew emerged from the dark capsule where they had been for almost 6 days. #nasa #space #apollo13 #fyp #foryoupage #Science #spacerace - @xmaxladx