How 3 Astronauts were Lost in Space - The Story of Apollo 13

A NASA spacecraft with three astronauts on board was about to land on the moon,but something terrible happened that no one was prepared for.

This spacecraft was at a distance of 322000 KM away from Earth. It took three days for them to reach there.The main oxygen tank blasted due to some fault.

This oxygen tank was supplying oxygen to the astronauts,and now astronauts were certain about their fate.

Now only 15 minutes of oxygen was left in the cabin and it was impossible to reach Earth within this time.

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Sending only robots to space,in itself, is a difficult thing for NASA. But to send humans and

To bring them unscathed is a sophisticated mission,where failure is not an option as failure would mean to risk years of hard work and human life.

Spacecraft protects astronauts from deadly sunrays but it gives them an earth like atmosphere, so that they can remain alive.

Pressurised cabins, where oxygen tanks are installed for oxygen supply and special filters are there to take out the carbon dioxide. If something happens to the spacecraft in space,

Then spacecraft and its astronauts will get lost in space forever.

And it will not be possible for anyone to bring them back.

But you'll be surprised to know that something similar happened to Apollo 13, in April 1970.

It is an actual incident which is no less than a science fiction story.

One year prior to this mission,Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon.

And Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.After Apollo 11, Apollo 12 was also successful. But now it was the time for Apollo 13, whose

The mission was to explore the moon further.

Apollo 13 was scheduled to land on a big crater and this portion of

The moon is called Fra Mauro.

The commander of the mission was James Lovell, and Jon Swigert, Fred Haise were the two module pilots.

All the three astronauts bid adieu to their families and went on the voyage.The rocket was launched on 11th April 1970 in Florida's John F. Kennedy Space Centre.

As this was not the first trip to the moon, therefore not many people were interested in watching its live broadcast.The spacecraft had three parts,this cone-shaped portion was called the command module.

All the three astronauts were going to spend most of their time here. In the portion resembling to a spider, was called lunar module and its main purpose was to land on the moon and take the astronauts back.

The third and the last part was this cylinder which contained the engine and oxygen tanks.

And that's why it was called the heart of the spacecraft.

The plan was that the spacecraft after exiting the Earth's orbit will circle around the moon.

And during that time,two astronauts sitting at the lunar module will detach it from the spacecraft.And land on the moon.

After collecting the samples, the lunar module would take them back to the moon's orbit.But they will again align themselves with the spacecraft and head towards the earth.

But seldom do they know what the fate has planned for them which they had never phantom.It's been 55 hours since they had left the earth. Spacecraft was heading towards the moon which was at a distance of 322000 KM from Earth.

Meanwhile when an astronaut pushed a button to check the oxygen tank level suddenly a strong jerk was felt. This jerk was so strong that other astronauts sitting in the command module also felt it.

At first, everyone thought it was another joke done by the module pilot Fred Haise.

But this time even Fred was worried and anxious like the other two pilots. Before they could think more the master alarm and electrical power failure light started to blink. It was detected that due to a short-circuit one oxygen tank got completely destroyed.

The mission commander briefed the whole situation to the Mission control at NASA.

The mission control at NASA were in chaos after receiving this news. Because NASA engineers knew the consequences of a blast in an oxygen tank.

After a few minutes the Mission control got the real-time data from the spacecraft. Then they got a news that not only one oxygen tank got blasted but the other oxygen tank is steadily emptying.Along with that, two out of three electrical supplies have also got destroyed, which was the main instrument to drive the spacecraft.

To handle all the problems at once was difficult for the Mission control and meanwhile Commander James Lovell saw gas leaking from the command module. This was the oxygen gas which was leaking from the second and last oxygen tank. Now all the three astronauts knew, they were in for a rough ride.

Now all the lights were off, neither do they have water to drink. Only one power backup was left and the oxygen they were breathing in, was coming from the last and leaking tank.

Apart from these problems there was another terrifying situation due to the blast the the spacecraft's direction was changed and it meant that if they didn't change their direction they might get lost in deep space forever.

Therefore they needed to correct their direction first.

On the other hand, the news was spread all across the globe.

The television networks that were ignoring this mission have now started covering the crisis of Apollo 13. Along with the families of the astronauts,

The whole world was watching this tragic news.

They were running out of time and it's been one and a half hours since the blast happened. The last oxygen tank had 15 minutes of oxygen left for the command module.

At this point NASA's Mission control decided that astronauts must shift from the command module to the lunar module. Fortunately, the lunar module had a separate oxygen supply,but the problem was it was designed for only two astronauts. But there was no option that's why they had to take this step.

All the three astronauts went inside the lunar module, where NASA engineers were doing real-time calculations to find out for how long it will keep them alive. From the calculation, it was found that the lunar module can supply oxygen for two days.

But the real question was when and how these astronauts will be brought to earth?

No one had the answer to this question. To bring the Apollo 13,NASA had two options: first was bringing the whole spacecraft towards the earth by using the main engine.

But as this main engine was running on the last fuel source that's why engineers feared that the engine might stop in between.

The second option was to utilise the Moon's gravity to push the spacecraft towards the earth which will required less power.Although NASA Mission control choose the second option, but it too had a problem.

That is, after completing a circle around the moon, the spacecraft needed to be pushed by firing the lunar module engine to enter the earth's orbit and leaving the Moon's orbit behind.

The Lunar module engine which was designed to take off from the moon was now required to do something different, and it was quite risky. The calculations for when and for how long the lunar module engine needed to be turned on was complex. Even a small error in this calculation could result in a disaster.

The Mission control sent all the calculations to the astronauts. And astronauts did exactly the same as they were instructed. After completing a rotation, they turned on the

Rockets at a specific point for 35 seconds which directed them towards the earth.

After two days the spacecraft was near the earth with a speed of 32,000 km/h and now they had to perform a difficult manoeuvre.

And that was, before reaching the Earth's atmosphere they had to leave the lunar module and come back to the command module. Because only the command module was designed for that purpose. Therefore wearing the spacesuit they entered the command module, where the temperature dropped below freezing point as all the computers were off.

To enter the earth's atmosphere they separated themselves from the lunar and service module.

NASA's Mission control and the entire world was holding their breath because it was the time to enter the earth's atmosphere without any control.

During the entry, due to the extreme heat, the communication remained broken for 3 min. Even after three minutes when there was no reply everyone thought that they have lost the astronauts.

But finally, it happened what everyone was wishing for the astronauts replied they were alright. Soon after entering the Earth's atmosphere they open their parachute which was now broadcasted live on television.

Along with the families of astronauts, everyone was celebrating. After a total of five days, on 17th April their module dropped in the Pacific Ocean. From there they were quickly rescued.

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