Apollo 13's oxygen tank exploded, prompting 'Houston, we've had a problem'
On this day · 13 April 1970
On April 13, 1970, a routine tank stir 200,000 miles from Earth turned a Moon landing into a fight for survival.
On the night of April 13, 1970, about 55 hours into Apollo 13’s flight to the Moon, Mission Control asked the crew to stir the spacecraft’s cryogenic oxygen tanks. Seconds later, damaged wiring inside oxygen tank No. 2 sparked, and the tank ruptured. Command module pilot Jack Swigert radioed the line that became history: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”
The blast crippled the service module, draining its oxygen and electrical power and forcing commander Jim Lovell and Fred Haise to abandon any hope of landing. The astronauts powered down the command module and retreated into the lunar module, using it as a makeshift lifeboat.
They were already some 200,000 miles from home when the tank blew.
Guided by improvised procedures from the ground, the crew looped around the Moon and limped back, splashing down safely on April 17, 1970—a near-disaster NASA later called a “successful failure.”
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