Astronauts used duct tape and card to stay alive in lunar lifeboat
“Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
These were the words that signalled the transformation of Apollo 13 from a “routine” lunar mission into one of the most famous spaceflights in history.
It’s 50 years since Apollo 13 blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre, and 25 since the Hollywood movie that told the astonishing tale of – spoiler alert – the astronauts’ survival against the odds after an explosion on board their capsule.
Interest in the moon missions had flagged since Apollo 11 took the first men to the lunar surface, to the extent that no American network carried the crew’s broadcast from orbit.
But after the accident triggered headlines around the world, tens of millions tuned in to live coverage of Mission Commander Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise – played in the picture by Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton respectively – splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
The drama started almost 56 hours into the mission, when Apollo 13 was 180,000 miles from Earth.
Damaged wire insulation inside an oxygen tank caused an explosion that vented its contents into space, though luckily the vacuum outside immediately extinguished the ensuing fire.
The spacecraft consisted of three parts, the command, service and lunar modules, but without oxygen the Service module’s propulsion and life support systems wouldn’t work.
The command module’s systems had to be shut down to conserve what resources remained for re-entry and so the crew had to transfer to the cramped lunar module, which would be used as a lifeboat.
The problem was that the module was only intended to ferry Lovell and Haise to the lunar surface and back but now, instead of supporting two men for two days, it had to support three for four days.
Mission controllers in Houston worked tirelessly to find solutions that would bring their men back home, a critical danger being that carbon dioxide that was building up.
The command module had enough “scrubbers” to clean the air, but they were the wrong size and shape for the lunar module, though Nasa engineers managed to devise a contraption from plastic, the covers from procedural manuals and duct tape to make them fit.
Other hardships were caused by limited power meaning a cold and wet cabin, and a lack of water.
The crew were rationed to 200ml of water a day and they all lost weight.
They were also told not to discharge their urine overboard lest it disturb their trajectory.
Despite all this, the crew landed safely six days after blast-off, leading Lovell to dub it a “successful failure”.