While the Cold War was in full swing, the US and USSR carried the mutual rivalry into space. In this context, NASA launched the Apollo project in 1967, after Yuri Gagarin went into space in 1961. Two years later, in 1969, Neil Louis Armstrong launched the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. A small step for himself, a giant leap for humanity. However, the lunar and space studies continued after this step.

In 1970, NASA’s seventh manned space mission was the third manned mission to the moon. Apollo 13 task completed. However, the ending didn’t go as planned and the team narrowly escaped death and returned to Earth without setting foot on the moon. Agree, What Happened During the Apollo 13 Mission? Why was it seen as a success even though they didn’t achieve the intended goal? Let’s take a closer look at the interesting story of the Apollo 13 mission.

Planned as a regular moon trip:

Space missions and moon trips in the 1960s and 1970s It had become commonplace for the whole world. Both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics conducted repeated space missions, traveling to and from the moon. Apollo 13 was one of them.

NASA’s seventh manned space mission, third manned mission to the moon, when the calendars showed April 11, 1970 Everything was ready for the Apollo 13 mission. The crew included astronauts James Arthur Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. Apollo 13 was launched at 1:13 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US.

The target of the Apollo 13 crew, discovered but not studied It was to get to know the Imbrium basin of the moon and the Fra Mauro region better. After landing in this region, they would investigate our moon a little more closely by conducting many different geological experiments. Apollo 13 made a successful journey. Until the evening of April 13.

“Houston, we have a problem here”

On April 13, 1970, Apollo 13 was about 320 thousand kilometers from Earth. Everything went well and the team would soon go into orbit around the moon. An explosion at 21:08 It was a sign that everything was upside down. The number 2 oxygen tank had exploded and began to impede the supply of vital needs. James Arthur Lovell reported the situation with the message “Houston, we have a problem here”.

Apollo 13 consisted of the landing module and the command module. When the command module lost pressure after the explosion, the team moved to the landing module. The mission to the moon was aborted. Now the Apollo 13 crew had only one mission; safely back home to Earth.

The market of life begins in the vacuum of space:

The command module was completely disabled and the crew moved to the landing module. The landing module is designed to land the crew in orbit around the moon and return them to the vehicle. It contained oxygen to support 2 people for 45 hours. However, this was not enough. If the crew of Apollo 13 wants to return to Earth That module would last for at least 90 hours and cover 320 thousand kilometers for 3 people.

The landing module needed energy and cooling water. The carbon dioxide had to be expelled somehow, but the square lithium hydroxide cans used in the command module were not compatible with the landing module. It was at this point that the Apollo 13 team used their engineering skills and by creating a primitive adapter with materials in the module managed to overcome all these problems.

The landing module was developed for the short distance between Apollo 13 and the lunar ground, meaning it didn’t have the navigation system the crew needed to find their way. The team first piloted the module manually and circled the moon once. After accelerating with a five minute engine burn They used the sun as an alignment point and eventually they formed the route home.

Apollo 13 returns home:

As the Apollo 13 team struggled with all these issues, they didn’t fail to snap some photos from orbit around the moon. Nearly all of the crew became ill while making their way through the world route. Because the landing module was not suitable for a 90-hour journey and it was very cold in the module. Meanwhile, ground crews were still repairing the remote control module.

on April 17, 1970 A final route is made by taking the world alignment point and meanwhile the crew moved on to the repaired command module. The landing module separated from the command module before entering the Earth’s atmosphere. At 1:00 PM, the Apollo 13 crew entered Earth’s atmosphere.

After the command module was released into the atmosphere, there was a complete 4 minutes of silence. Everyone was worried that something was wrong with the command module heat shields. That would mean death. Fortunately, the Apollo 13 parachutes were finally seen over the Pacific Ocean, and the 3 astronauts completed their mission and returned home safely.

Why is Apollo 13 a failed success?

Even though we are used to space travel and moon travel, each of these missions carries great risks. As a result of the fire in the Apollo 1 capsule on January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Bruce Chaffee death of astronauts It reminds us how sensitive this issue is.

The Apollo 13 mission is therefore a real success. Yes, the mission’s original mission failed, the moon didn’t land, but NASA has accomplished a much larger mission. In an accident that happened thousands of miles from Earth in the vacuum of space, he managed to return home safely without anyone dying.

The Apollo 13 mission showed that the developed spacecraft can actually be controlled remotely. The astronauts trained in the same way can fight a battle that doesn’t look like science fiction movies. We are sure that no one in space, he doesn’t want to die in a spacecraft. For this reason, although Apollo 13 failed in its original mission, it left its mark on history as a real success.

Going down in history as an unsuccessful success We told the story of the Apollo 13 mission and we talked about why it’s called that. Although the moon is no longer as popular as it used to be, it looks like we will soon be writing such new heroic stories about our travels on Mars.