Every chapter of Apollo 13, in sequence.
T+00:00:00
April 11, 1970 · 19:13 UTC
At 2:13 p.m. EST on April 11, 1970, Saturn V SA-508 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A carrying commander Jim Lovell, command module pilot Jack Swigert — a backup crew member who had replaced Ken Mattingly just 72 hours earlier after a measles-exposure scare — and lunar module pilot Fred Haise. It was to be NASA's third lunar landing, targeting the Fra Mauro highlands.
The ascent was not flawless. During the S-II second-stage burn, the centre engine shut down about two minutes early. The remaining four J-2 engines burned longer to compensate, and the S-IVB third stage made up the rest. Apollo 13 reached Earth orbit on schedule — but the mission's pattern of near-misses had already begun.
T+55:54:53
April 14, 1970 · 03:07 UTC
Roughly 330,000 kilometres from Earth, the crew performed a routine stir of the cryogenic oxygen tanks. Oxygen tank 2 exploded — the result of damaged wire insulation — rupturing a side panel off the service module and crippling the command module's power, oxygen supply, and main propulsion. Swigert's report was almost matter-of-fact: 'Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.' Lovell confirmed: 'Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a Main B Bus undervolt.' Then, staring out the window, he saw the ship venting gas into space and understood what they were facing.
The Moon landing was aborted immediately. Mission Control in Houston pivoted from exploration to survival, beginning a four-day improvisation that would test every engineer, flight controller, and astronaut involved.
T+58:40:00
April 14, 1970 · 05:53 UTC
With the command module Odyssey losing power and breathable oxygen, the crew moved into the lunar module Aquarius. Aquarius was designed to support two astronauts for roughly two days on the lunar surface — not three men for a four-day rescue across deep space. Every watt and every fraction of a litre of water had to be rationed from the moment they closed the hatch.
Odyssey was powered down to preserve its batteries for the one critical moment still ahead: reentry. The spacecraft that was supposed to take them to the Moon was now their lifeboat, and the crew settled in for a cold, uncertain journey home.
T+77:08:00
April 15, 1970 · 00:21 UTC
To use the Moon's gravity for a free-return slingshot toward Earth, the crew had to fly around the far side. Two hours past the far side, a precisely-timed burn of Aquarius's descent engine accelerated their return. As they swung behind the Moon, they passed through a radio blackout — alone with a broken spacecraft at the far edge of their journey.
At that moment, the Apollo 13 crew set a record that stands to this day: the farthest any human beings have ever been from Earth — approximately 400,171 kilometres. It is a record earned not in triumph but in crisis, a reminder that exploration and danger are inseparable.
T+93:00:00
April 15, 1970 · 16:13 UTC
Carbon dioxide was rising to dangerous levels inside Aquarius. The lunar module used round lithium-hydroxide canisters to scrub CO₂ from the air; the command module's square canisters — of which there were spares — were physically incompatible. The crew faced suffocation unless engineers on the ground could devise an adapter from whatever was aboard: plastic bags, cardboard from a flight-plan binder, a hose, and duct tape.
Flight controllers assembled the parts on their desks in Houston and read the instructions step by step to the crew over the radio. The improvised scrubber — dubbed 'the mailbox' — worked. It was one of the most celebrated acts of problem-solving in space history, turning potential catastrophe into a manual for ingenuity under pressure.
T+105:18:00
April 16, 1970 · 04:31 UTC
With all non-essential systems shut down to preserve power, the cabin temperature inside Aquarius fell to approximately 3 °C. Condensation formed on the walls and instrument panels. Water was rationed to around 0.2 litres per person per day — far below the minimum recommended intake. The crew barely slept. The mission that had been planned as a geological expedition to Fra Mauro had become a test of human endurance.
Course corrections were performed without the inertial guidance platform that normally did the work; instead, the crew used Earth's terminator — the line dividing the sunlit from the dark hemisphere — as a visual reference to align the burn manually. Each manoeuvre had to be right. There was no margin for error.
T+142:40:00
April 17, 1970 · 17:53 UTC
Before reentry the crew jettisoned the service module, and for the first time got a clear look at the damage: an entire exterior panel had been blown away by the explosion, exposing the gutted interior. They photographed the wreckage as it drifted away, then powered up Odyssey on its carefully-reserved batteries. As the lifeboat was released, CAPCOM Joe Kerwin radioed up the farewell — 'Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you' — and Lovell answered: 'She sure was a good ship.'
Odyssey hit the atmosphere and the radio blackout began — and ran roughly a minute and a half longer than predicted. Around the world, television audiences watched in silence. Then, at 1:07 p.m. EST on April 17, 1970, three orange-and-white parachutes appeared over the South Pacific.
T+142:54:41
April 17, 1970 · 18:07 UTC
Odyssey splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean near American Samoa at 1:07 p.m. EST on April 17, 1970. Recovery helicopters from USS Iwo Jima reached the capsule within minutes. All three astronauts — Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise — came home safely. The mission had lasted 5 days, 22 hours, and 54 minutes.
NASA called Apollo 13 a 'successful failure.' No landing was made, no science was done at Fra Mauro. But the mission proved that the agency's engineering culture, its obsessive rehearsal of contingencies, and the ability of crew and ground to think under pressure could bring three men back from the edge of deep space. It remains the most studied rescue in the history of human spaceflight.
Sources: NASA Apollo 13 Mission Overview · NASA Apollo 13 Mission Details