Damaged Teflon insulation on the wires to the stirring fan inside Oxygen Tank 2 caused an electric arc when Swigert activated the fans at Mission Control's request, igniting the insulation and causing the tank to explode. The insulation had likely been damaged months earlier when ground technicians used heaters to boil off liquid oxygen from the tank, and faulty thermostatic switches allowed temperatures inside to reach an estimated 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit during that test.
Who were the crew members of Apollo 13?
Apollo 13 was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module pilot and Fred Haise as lunar module pilot. Swigert replaced Ken Mattingly two days before launch after Mattingly was grounded for exposure to rubella, even though he never developed the illness.
How did the Apollo 13 crew survive without a working command module?
The crew transferred to the lunar module Aquarius, which served as a lifeboat. Mission Control improvised procedures so the two-man lunar module could support three men for four days, including constructing a carbon dioxide scrubber adapter from duct tape and procedure manual covers, rationing water to 200 milliliters per person per day, and devising a power-up sequence for the command module restart that had never been used in flight before.
How far from Earth was Apollo 13 at its farthest point?
At pericynthion on the 14th of April, 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 was 400,171 kilometers from Earth, setting the record for the furthest humans had ever been from Earth. The record occurred because the Moon was nearly at its greatest distance from Earth during the mission, and the free-return trajectory took the capsule further from the Moon than other Apollo missions had traveled.
What changes were made to Apollo spacecraft after Apollo 13?
For Apollo 14 and later missions, the stirring fans were removed from the oxygen tanks and a third oxygen tank was added in a separate bay with an isolation valve. All electrical wiring in the affected service module bay was sheathed in stainless steel, the fuel cell oxygen supply valves were redesigned to isolate Teflon-coated wiring from oxygen, and an emergency 5-gallon water supply and an emergency battery were added to the spacecraft.
What happened to the Apollo 13 astronauts after the mission?
None of the three Apollo 13 astronauts flew in space again. Jim Lovell retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973 and entered the private sector; he died in 2025 at age 97. Jack Swigert left NASA, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, but died of cancer before he could be sworn in, aged 51. Fred Haise flew the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests and retired from NASA in 1979.