Apollo 13, the third crewed mission planned to land on the Moon, was launched on 11 April 1970, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States. The mission's primary objective was to explore the Fra Mauro formation, a region on the Moon's surface. The crew consisted of Commander James A. Lovell Jr., Command Module Pilot John L. Swigert Jr., and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise Jr.
However, two days into the mission, on 13 April an oxygen tank in the service module exploded, causing critical damage to the spacecraft. The explosion forced the crew to abort their lunar landing and instead focus on safely returning to Earth. The mission became famous for the phrase "Houston, we've had a problem," spoken by Commander Lovell to mission control to alert them of the emergency.
Despite facing numerous challenges, including limited power, loss of cabin heat, and the need to jury-rig solutions to conserve resources, the crew, along with the support team on the ground, managed to safely navigate the spacecraft back to Earth. Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 17 April 1970, and all three astronauts returned home unharmed. The mission was considered a "successful failure" because even though the lunar landing was aborted, the safe return of the crew demonstrated the resilience and capabilities of NASA's Apollo program.
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