This Apollo 13 trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and covers both the mission and the movie. On the mission side: the rubella scare that swapped the crew two days out, the tank stir and the 95 seconds before the bang, the lunar module lifeboat, the free-return and PC+2 burns, the mailbox built from duct tape and manual covers, the 3 °C cabin and 200 ml water ration, the six-minute blackout, the review board and the Grumman towing invoice. On the film side: how Tom Hanks beat Kevin Costner to the part, the KC-135 zero-g shoot, who turned down Swigert and Haise, Ron Howard's family cameos, the line Gene Kranz never said, the Oscars it won and lost, and where it bends the record. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen the film; hard ones want the tank's manufacturer and the university that solved the docking-tunnel problem. Every answer has been checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the mission and the film, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year did Apollo 13 fly?
1970
It launched on April 11 and splashed down on April 17, and it would have been the third Moon landing.
Q 02Before commanding this flight, Jim Lovell flew on which mission, the first to orbit the Moon?
Apollo 8
At 42 he was NASA's most experienced astronaut, with 572 hours in space over Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8.
Q 03What exploded aboard Apollo 13 two days into the flight?
An oxygen tank in the service module
A routine stir of the tank ignited damaged wire insulation, and the blast vented both of the service module's oxygen tanks to space.
Q 04Which spacecraft did the Apollo 13 crew use as a 'lifeboat' after the explosion?
The lunar module
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.
Q 05Who played Jim Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13?
Tom Hanks
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.
Q 06Who directed the 1995 film Apollo 13?
Ron Howard
His mother, father, wife and daughter Bryce Dallas Howard all appear in the film.
Q 07Which famous movie line from Apollo 13 was never actually said during the mission?
Failure is not an option
Screenwriters lifted it from an interview with flight controller Jerry Bostick, and Gene Kranz liked it enough to title his 2000 autobiography with it.
Q 08Which mission crew member was grounded two days before launch after being exposed to rubella?
Ken Mattingly
He never developed the disease, and later flew to the Moon on Apollo 16.
Q 09Which two Academy Awards did Apollo 13 (1995) win from its nine nominations?
Best Film Editing and Best Sound
It also took the SAG Award for outstanding cast and was added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Q 10Where did the Apollo 13 command module splash down?
The South Pacific Ocean
An estimated 40 million Americans watched it live; the crew were picked up by USS Iwo Jima 6.5 km away.
Q 11What was the call sign of Apollo 13's lander, the craft the crew ended up living in on the way home?
Aquarius
Lovell took it from Aquarius the water-bearer, not from the song in Hair as some reporters assumed.
Q 12What was the call sign of the Apollo 13 command module?
Odyssey
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.
Q 13What did the Apollo 13 crew and Mission Control famously improvise from duct tape, plastic and cardboard?
A carbon dioxide scrubber adapter
Q 21How long did the crew's water ration run per person per day during the return?
About 200 millilitres
The three men lost 14 kg between them and came home with 12.8 kg of water to spare.
Q 22How cold did it get inside the darkened Apollo 13 spacecraft?
As low as 3 °C
Lovell decided spacesuits would be too hot, so he and Haise wore their lunar boots and the third man pulled on an extra coverall.
Q 23Which Apollo 13 crew member developed a urinary tract infection on the way home?
Fred Haise
It was probably caused by the tiny water ration; he was otherwise the man who would have commanded the cancelled Apollo 19.
Engineers called it 'the mailbox'; CAPCOM Joe Kerwin read the build instructions up over the course of an hour.
Q 14Which actor played flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13?
Ed Harris
Kelsey Grammer and Christopher Lloyd were both offered the role first.
Q 15What did President Nixon award the Apollo 13 crew when they reached Hawaii?
The Presidential Medal of Freedom
He then stopped in Houston to give the same honour to the Mission Operations Team, on the recommendation of NASA chief Thomas Paine.
Q 16What was Apollo 13's intended landing site on the Moon?
Fra Mauro
Apollo 14 went there instead in February 1971, with Fred Haise serving as CAPCOM during the descent.
Q 17How far from Earth was Apollo 13 at its farthest point, a record for humans that stood until 2026?
About 400,000 km
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.
Q 18Which everyday chore did the command module pilot realise mid-flight he had forgotten to do?
File his income tax return
He was found to be entitled to a 60-day extension for being out of the country on April 15.
Q 19Lovell summed up Apollo 13 with which two-word phrase?
A successful failure
The response has been called 'NASA's finest hour' ever since.
Q 20What was Apollo 13's mission motto?
Ex luna, scientia
Lovell adapted his alma mater's motto, the Naval Academy's Ex scientia, tridens ('From knowledge, sea power').
Q 24Which review-board member, later far more famous, helped investigate the Apollo 13 accident?
Neil Armstrong
The board, chaired by Langley director Edgar Cortright, delivered its report on June 15, 1970.
Q 25What was Apollo 13's spacecraft made to do with the Saturn V third stage, for the first time?
Crash it into the Moon
The impact registered on Apollo 12's seismometer 117 km away, prompting Lovell's quip that at least something worked on this flight.
Q 26With debris blocking star sightings, what did the crew use to align the spacecraft for the PC+2 burn?
The Sun
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.
Q 27Which manufacturer jokingly invoiced North American Rockwell over $312,000 for 'towing' Apollo 13 around the Moon?
Grumman
Line items included $1 a mile plus $4 for the first mile, and four nights at $8 for an 'additional guest in room'.
Q 28How long was Apollo 13's reentry communications blackout, compared with the usual four?
Six minutes
The shallow entry path stretched it out, and controllers feared the heat shield had failed.
Q 29The Apollo 13 film was adapted from which 1994 book?
Lost Moon
Journalist Jeffrey Kluger co-wrote it with Lovell after Lovell retired in 1991; Kluger cameos in the film as a TV reporter.
Q 30How were the weightless scenes in Apollo 13 filmed?
Aboard NASA's KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft
Steven Spielberg suggested it; the crew got three hours and 54 minutes of weightlessness across 612 parabolas.