With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft
that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returned to Earth on April 17, 1970.

Apollo13 – view of the crippled Service Module after
separation.     
     
     
     
 

On April 13, 1970, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth
when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up on Apollo 13, the third
manned lunar landing mission. Astronauts James A. Lovell,
John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise had left Earth two days
before for the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon but were
forced to turn their attention to simply making it home alive.

At NASA Mission Control in Houston’s Manned Spacecraft Center, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, left, director of flight
crew operations, holds lithium hydroxide canisters attached
to a hose, a makeshift repair to reduce the dangerous levels
of carbon dioxide aboard the crippled spacecraft Apollo 13.

On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying
astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise.

After an oxygen tank exploded just over 200,000 miles from Earth
on the evening of April 13, however, the new mission objective
became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive. The landing mission
was aborted.

   
The crew: Jim Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred Haise.

   
The Apollo 13 service module showing explosion damage. (NASA)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who
commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon
landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday
in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home.

Stafford, a retired Air Force three-star general, took part in
four space missions. Before Apollo 10, he flew on two Gemini
flights, including the first rendezvous of two U.S. capsules in
orbit.

Stafford was one of 24 NASA astronauts who flew to the moon,
but he did not land on it. Only seven of them are still alive.

ASTRONAUT THOMAS P. STAFFORD DURING GEMINI 9 MISSION.