Apollo 13 XIII Lunar Exploration NASA Mission Gold Plated Black Fill Lapel Pin

Description

Vintage
Apollo 13 XIII
Moon Exploration
Lunar missions
Gold Plated
Black Fill
Lapel pin
Shipped with USPS First Class Package.
Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon, and returned safely to Earth on April 17, 1970. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell with Jack Swigert as command module pilot (CMP) and Fred Haise as lunar module pilot (LMP). Swigert was a late replacement for the original CMP Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella. The oxygen tank failure was caused by accidental ignition of damaged wire insulation inside it during a routine tank stirring operation. The SM soon lost all its oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electrical power. Command module (CM) power had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the lunar module (LM) as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing cancelled, mission controllers worked feverishly to bring the crew home alive. Although the LM was designed to support two men on the lunar surface for two days, Mission Control in Houston improvised new procedures so it could support three men for four days. The crew experienced great hardship caused by limited power, a chilly and wet cabin and a shortage of potable water. There was a critical need to adapt the CM's cartridges for the carbon dioxide removal system to work in the LM; the crew and mission controllers were successful in improvising a solution. The astronauts' peril sparked renewed interest in the Apollo program, with tens of millions watching the splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean by television. An investigative review board found fault with the testing of the oxygen tank and the fact that combustible Teflon was placed inside it; a number of changes were made for Apollo 14. The story of Apollo 13 has been dramatized multiple times, most notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13.