Apollo 13

Apollo 13 is a movie about the “failed” moon landing in April 1970 and is directed by Ron Howard. The movie follows the historical mission of three astronauts, Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). They are suddenly faced with a life threatening emergency which turns out to be an explosion of the oxygen tanks, they are then forced to scrub the mission to land on the moon. The mission to the moon goes terribly wrong when they are 200,000 miles from Earth.

As the astronauts are forced to use only the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module), designed for 2 people, Oxygen levels drop, CO2 levels rise and ground personnel scramble madly to come up with a solution to save the three men.

There are several very tense moments when the astronauts are unsure of how extensive the damage is to the spacecraft and are not certain they will survive the re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. They also had the stress of coping with freezing temperatures, minimal water, frozen food, no power for navigation and Fred Haise, the LEM pilot, becoming incredibly sick.

The mission was deemed a failure since the astronauts were unable to land on the moon, instead they must struggle to get home. The movie was released in 1995 and was adapted from Apollo 13 book, written by Jim Lovell who has a cameo at the end of the movie, playing the Captain of the USS Iwo Jima.

The crew named the Command Module Odyssey and the LEM Aquarius.

Although the mission only lasted 6 days, Jim Lovell lost a total of 14 pounds due to a combination of stress, frozen food and minimal water.

Mission Timeline  

April 11 – Spacecraft lift off

April 13 – Oxygen tank explodes

April 15 – Crew build CO2 scrubbers to clean the air

April 17 – Splash down in the Pacific

Reception
Apollo 13 was a popular movie when it came out. It proved to be profitable, making over $172 million on a $52 million budget. It won two Oscars; best sound and best editing; and was nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, Best Visual Effects, and Best Music. The movie currently has a 77 score on Metacritic.