Apollo 13 mission to land on the Moon. The astronauts' mission insignia was sculpted as a medallion depicting "Steeds of Apollo" by Lumen Martin Winter and was struck by the Franklin Mint. The Apollo 13 mission was to explore the Fra Mauro formation, or Fra Mauro highlands, named after the diameter Fra Mauro crater located within it. It is a widespread, hilly selenological area thought to be composed of ejecta from the impact that formed Mare Imbrium. The next Apollo mission, Apollo 14, eventually made a successful flight to Fra Mauro. April 14, 1970 UTC (April 13, 21:07:53 CST) April 15, 1970,
Apollo program The initial direct ascent plan to send the three-man Apollo command and service module directly to the lunar surface, on top of a large descent rocket stage, would require a Nova-class launcher, with a lunar payload capability of over . The June 11, 1962, decision to use lunar orbit rendezvous enabled the Saturn V to replace the Nova, and the MSFC proceeded to develop the Saturn rocket family for Apollo. Since Apollo, like Mercury, would require a launch escape system (LES) in case of a launch failure, a relatively small rocket was required for qualification flight testing of this system.