On April 17, 1970, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its way to the moon, safely returns to Earth.
In the morning of April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission took off from Florida, bringing astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise aboard for the landing. The mission was supposed to land on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However, as the spacecraft was 200,000 miles away from Earth on Day 2, the oxygen tank No. 2 blew up, causing a disaster. Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water had been disrupted.
In the event, the landing mission was aborted, and the astronauts and controllers on Earth scrambled to come up with emergency procedures as the crippled spacecraft bounced around around the moon and began a long, cold journey back to Earth.
Due to the loss of fuel cells, the astronauts and mission control faced enormous logistical challenges in stabilizing the spacecraft and oxygen supply, as well as running on batteries so that they could successfully return to the atmosphere. As Apollo 13‘s course was repeatedly corrected with dramatic and untested maneuvers, tragedy turned to triumph on April 17, as the astronauts safely touched down in the Pacific Ocean.