60 Fun Facts About Apollo 13

In which year did Apollo 13 fly?

It launched on April 11 and splashed down on April 17, and it would have been the third Moon landing.

Before commanding this flight, Jim Lovell flew on which mission, the first to orbit the Moon?

At 42 he was NASA's most experienced astronaut, with 572 hours in space over Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8.

What exploded aboard Apollo 13 two days into the flight?

A routine stir of the tank ignited damaged wire insulation, and the blast vented both of the service module's oxygen tanks to space.

Which spacecraft did the Apollo 13 crew use as a 'lifeboat' after the explosion?

It was designed to keep two men alive on the Moon for two days; Houston improvised ways to make it support three men for four.

Who played Jim Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13?

The script was written with Kevin Costner in mind because he looked like Lovell, but Hanks won the part for his knowledge of space history.

Who directed the 1995 film Apollo 13?

His mother, father, wife and daughter Bryce Dallas Howard all appear in the film.

Which famous movie line from Apollo 13 was never actually said during the mission?

Screenwriters lifted it from an interview with flight controller Jerry Bostick, and Gene Kranz liked it enough to title his 2000 autobiography with it.

Which mission crew member was grounded two days before launch after being exposed to rubella?

He never developed the disease, and later flew to the Moon on Apollo 16.

Which two Academy Awards did Apollo 13 (1995) win from its nine nominations?

It also took the SAG Award for outstanding cast and was added to the National Film Registry in 2023.

Where did the Apollo 13 command module splash down?

An estimated 40 million Americans watched it live; the crew were picked up by USS Iwo Jima 6.5 km away.

What was the call sign of Apollo 13's lander, the craft the crew ended up living in on the way home?

Lovell took it from Aquarius the water-bearer, not from the song in Hair as some reporters assumed.

What was the call sign of the Apollo 13 command module?

Lovell chose it partly as a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey and partly because he liked the dictionary definition: a long voyage with many changes of fortune.

What did the Apollo 13 crew and Mission Control famously improvise from duct tape, plastic and cardboard?

Engineers called it 'the mailbox'; CAPCOM Joe Kerwin read the build instructions up over the course of an hour.

Which actor played flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13?

Kelsey Grammer and Christopher Lloyd were both offered the role first.

What did President Nixon award the Apollo 13 crew when they reached Hawaii?

He then stopped in Houston to give the same honour to the Mission Operations Team, on the recommendation of NASA chief Thomas Paine.

What was Apollo 13's intended landing site on the Moon?

Apollo 14 went there instead in February 1971, with Fred Haise serving as CAPCOM during the descent.

How far from Earth was Apollo 13 at its farthest point, a record for humans that stood until 2026?

The Moon was near its farthest from Earth that week and the free-return path swung wide, so the record fell to Artemis II's flyby.

Which everyday chore did the command module pilot realise mid-flight he had forgotten to do?

He was found to be entitled to a 60-day extension for being out of the country on April 15.

Lovell summed up Apollo 13 with which two-word phrase?

The response has been called 'NASA's finest hour' ever since.

What was Apollo 13's mission motto?

Lovell adapted his alma mater's motto, the Naval Academy's Ex scientia, tridens ('From knowledge, sea power').

How long did the crew's water ration run per person per day during the return?

The three men lost 14 kg between them and came home with 12.8 kg of water to spare.

How cold did it get inside the darkened Apollo 13 spacecraft?

Lovell decided spacesuits would be too hot, so he and Haise wore their lunar boots and the third man pulled on an extra coverall.

Which Apollo 13 crew member developed a urinary tract infection on the way home?

It was probably caused by the tiny water ration; he was otherwise the man who would have commanded the cancelled Apollo 19.

Which review-board member, later far more famous, helped investigate the Apollo 13 accident?

The board, chaired by Langley director Edgar Cortright, delivered its report on June 15, 1970.

What was Apollo 13's spacecraft made to do with the Saturn V third stage, for the first time?

The impact registered on Apollo 12's seismometer 117 km away, prompting Lovell's quip that at least something worked on this flight.

With debris blocking star sightings, what did the crew use to align the spacecraft for the PC+2 burn?

Houston also told them the Moon would sit centred in the commander's window during the burn, which turned out to be within 0.3 metres per second of perfect.

Which manufacturer jokingly invoiced North American Rockwell over $312,000 for 'towing' Apollo 13 around the Moon?

Line items included $1 a mile plus $4 for the first mile, and four nights at $8 for an 'additional guest in room'.

How long was Apollo 13's reentry communications blackout, compared with the usual four?

The shallow entry path stretched it out, and controllers feared the heat shield had failed.

The Apollo 13 film was adapted from which 1994 book?

Journalist Jeffrey Kluger co-wrote it with Lovell after Lovell retired in 1991; Kluger cameos in the film as a TV reporter.

How were the weightless scenes in Apollo 13 filmed?

Steven Spielberg suggested it; the crew got three hours and 54 minutes of weightlessness across 612 parabolas.

Who turned down the last-minute command module pilot role in Apollo 13 in favour of Seven?

The part went to Kevin Bacon, and the film gave him his biggest opening weekend until Hollow Man in 2000.

Who played the grounded prime command module pilot in the film Apollo 13?

Daniel Stern was the original choice but was busy; Sinise, fresh from Forrest Gump with Hanks, was asked to pick any part and chose Mattingly.

Which actress played Marilyn Lovell in Apollo 13?

Marilyn Lovell praised the performance, saying she could feel what the character was going through.

What cameo did the real mission commander make in the 1995 film?

Howard wanted to make him an admiral, but Lovell insisted on appearing in his real retired rank of captain, in his own Navy uniform.

How did the film alter Lovell's real radio call, 'Houston, we've had a problem'?

The reworded line was voted number 50 on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes.

Which film knocked Apollo 13 off the top of the US box office after four weeks at number one?

It finished 1995 as the year's third-highest grosser behind Die Hard with a Vengeance and Toy Story.

Where did Hanks, Paxton and Bacon train before shooting Apollo 13?

Lovell and Apollo 15 commander David Scott ran real training exercises with the actors in simulated modules there.

Which of the director's relatives played Blanche Lovell in the film?

Jean Speegle Howard took the part; Rance Howard played the family minister and Clint Howard played EECOM Sy Liebergot.

How long after the oxygen tank fans were switched on did the crew hear the bang?

The film compresses it to almost instantly; in reality there was a minute and a half of calm first.

Which flight director's Black Team steered Apollo 13 right after the explosion, a role the film largely gives to Kranz?

Ken Mattingly later said that if there was a hero, Lunney was, by himself, a hero for the calm he brought that night.

Which company built the faulty Oxygen Tank 2 as a subcontractor to North American Rockwell?

Its thermostatic switches were rated for 28 volts, but ground tests at Kennedy used 65 volts, cooking the wire insulation weeks before launch.

What did the Atomic Energy Commission want dropped safely, prompting Apollo 13's final course correction?

The SNAP-27 fuel cask sank 10 km into the Tonga Trench, and helicopter surveys later found no leak.

Which school's engineers calculated the docking-tunnel air pressure that separated Apollo 13's craft before reentry?

With the service module already gone, the usual thruster manoeuvre was impossible, so the tunnel pressure itself did the job.

What was unusual about Apollo 13's mission patch, alongside Apollo 11's?

Artist Lumen Martin Winter based it on a mural he had painted for New York's St. Regis Hotel, which Tom Hanks later bought.

What became of the Apollo 13 command module after the mission?

The same Cosmosphere workshop, Space Works, built the spacecraft interiors for the 1995 film.

Which anomaly hit Apollo 13 during launch, before the famous explosion?

Severe pogo oscillations caused it; investigators later found the engine was one cycle from catastrophic failure.

Which director's cameo as a congressman continued a tradition of appearing in his protégés' films?

He gave the director his first directing job, and the director returned the favour with a VIP tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Which then-inexpensive prop was used for the film's long-range shot of the Saturn V in flight?

Effects supervisor Robert Legato re-filmed the shot off a high-resolution monitor through a black filter so it would not look like a video game.

What temperature were the Universal soundstages chilled to so the actors' breath would show?

Signs describing frostbite symptoms were posted on the walls and the crew worked in parkas.

Which 1969 film about trapped astronauts did Lovell think caused his wife's nightmare, recreated in Apollo 13?

The Lovells had seen it three months before launch; the wedding-ring-down-the-drain scene was also real, though the trap caught it.

Which of the Apollo 13 crew was elected to Congress in 1982 but died before he could be sworn in?

He had been dropped from the Apollo–Soyuz crew over the Apollo 15 postal-covers affair and left NASA for politics.

Lovell adapted Apollo 13's motto from the motto of which institution, his alma mater?

The Academy's Ex scientia, tridens ('From knowledge, sea power') became Ex luna, scientia, 'From the Moon, knowledge'.

Who bought the St. Regis Hotel mural on which the Apollo 13 mission patch was based?

Artist Lumen Martin Winter designed the patch from his own mural; it now hangs in the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Illinois.

Which 1968 film, besides Homer's epic, inspired the Apollo 13 command module's call sign?

Lovell also said he simply liked the word's definition: a long voyage with many changes of fortune.

Why did the mission first put red stripes on the helmet and limbs of Lovell's spacesuit?

Reviewers of Apollo 11 pictures could not tell Armstrong from Aldrin; the change came too late for Apollo 12.

Roughly how much plutonium oxide was in the SNAP-27 fuel capsule Apollo 13 carried?

The cask was built to survive reentry, and it sank 10 km into the Tonga Trench; later helicopter surveys found no leakage.

How many Soviet ships headed toward the splashdown area to assist Apollo 13 if needed?

Pope Paul VI led 10,000 people in prayer, and the US Senate urged businesses to pause at 9 pm on 14 April so employees could pray.

Roughly how many Americans watched Apollo 13's splashdown live?

All three networks carried it, and another 30 million caught part of the six-and-a-half-hour telecast.

Which scandal cost Swigert his seat on the 1975 joint mission with the Soviet Union?

He left NASA in 1973 for politics; Haise, meanwhile, was slated to command the cancelled Apollo 19.

Which later mission finally landed at Fra Mauro, the intended site, in February 1971?

Fred Haise served as CAPCOM as Shepard and Mitchell descended, and again while they explored near Cone crater.