Apollo 13 Apollo 13 Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module (SM) upon which the command module (CM) had depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to make makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on
Apollo program engine was more severe, preventing it from restarting for trans-lunar injection. Mission controllers were able to use the service-module engine to essentially repeat the flight profile of Apollo 4. Based on the good performance of Apollo 6 and identification of satisfactory fixes to the Apollo 6 problems, NASA declared the Saturn V ready to fly men, cancelling a third unmanned test. Apollo 7, launched from LC-34 on October 11, 1968, was the C mission, crewed by Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham. It was an 11-day Earth-orbital flight which tested the CSM systems. Apollo 8 was planned to be the D mission