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 Block II space suits, and would be designated by the Block II titles, regardless of whether a LM was present on the flight or not. On April 24, 1967, Mueller published an official Apollo mission numbering scheme, using sequential numbers for all flights, manned or unmanned. The sequence would start with Apollo 4 to cover the first three unmanned flights while retiring the Apollo 1 designation to honor the crew, per their widows' wishes. In September 1967, Mueller approved a sequence of mission types which had to be successfully accomplished in order to achieve the manned lunar landing. Each step