Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, which was intended to be the third Apol

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, which was intended to be the third Apollo mission to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida on April 11, 1970. Two days into the flight, damaged wire insulation inside the oxygen tank in the service module ignited, causing an explosion which vented the oxygen tank into space. Without oxygen, the service module became inoperable and the lunar mission quickly turned into a mission to safely return the crew to Earth. The astronauts worked with Mission Control to shut down the command module in order to conserve the remaining oxygen, forcing all three astronauts into the lunar module. The astronauts continued to work with Mission Control to combat one technical failure after another until, on April 17, 1970, the crew landed safely in the South Pacific Ocean. Pictured here is a photograph digitized by the Still Pictures Branch of the National Archives at College Park of the Apollo 13 Spacecraft Being Returned to the Prime Recovery Ship, USS Iwo Jima (https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17409740).NASA established an investigative review board in the wake of the near-catastrophic Apollo 13 mission. The Apollo 13 Review Board was charged with reviewing the circumstances surrounding the accident, determining the cause(s) of the accident, reviewing the effectiveness of flight recovery actions by Mission Control and the astronauts, and developing recommendations to avoid technical failures in the future. The National Archives at Philadelphia recently acquired the records of the Apollo 13 Review Board, which are available for research when our facility reopens. Please email our reference staff at philadelphia.archives@nara.gov with any questions relating to these records, or to schedule an appointment for review once our facility reopens. -- source link

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