Apollo 13 As They Shot It

Day 1 · April 11, 1970

launch announcer Ignition sequence has started. Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. Lift-off!

commander jim lovell The clock is running.

...

astronaut jack swigert Clear the tower.

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lovell 2,000 feet.

swigert OK, you’re right on, Jim. You’re right on trajectory.

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astronaut fred haise Look at the horizon out there.

swigert Yes, there it comes.

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swigert Houston, how do you read 13?

Mission Control, Houston 13, Houston. Loud and clear.

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swigert I’m trying to find out which country we’re over.

lovell I have to keep telling Jack that the blue stuff down there is water.

houston I’ll give you a hint. You’re in the Western Hemisphere.

swigert OK, Joe. It appears like that we’ve crossed out into the Gulf of Mexico here, and I’ve got a peninsula or an island that’s down there. I don’t know whether you can see it.

houston Roger, Jack. We see that. Of course, there’s a lot of cloud cover and you see it more clearly than we do, but it does look like the Earth, not the moon.

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swigert That’s quite a bang, Joe. We’ve separated [from the S-IVB rocket], and we’ve pitched around about 60 degrees now.

houston Roger, Jack.

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lovell As you might know, Joe, I’ve got the center seat again and I can’t see a thing.

houston Too bad.

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haise I’m looking out window five at what I think is the S-IVB, and I’m seeing what looks to be double plumes ...

swigert Hey, Joe, what it looks like, kind of, is if you pull up behind a guy that’s pulling a contrail and you get in his contrail — like he’s going away from you.

...

haise It’s a very pretty sight.

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lovell Houston, Apollo 13.

houston Rog. Go ahead, Jim.

lovell Roger. We’re at that stage now where we’re going to take some Earth weather photography. If you’re standing by, I have the camera aimed at the Earth right now, and I’ll give you a mark when I take the first picture.

houston Roger. We copy, Jim. We’ll be standing by for the mark.

lovell OK, Houston. Three, two, one, mark.

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houston Earth starting to look pretty small now?

swigert Well, looking at it here, Vance, it’s hard to be convinced it’s even the Earth. All we see is water and clouds.

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lovell Vance, to our calculations we have taken about 10 Earth window photography pictures. ... I was thinking about getting squared away to bed down for the evening pretty soon.

houston OK, that sounds good, Jim. FAO [flight activities officer] here would like to request just one more picture before you bed down, if you don’t mind.

lovell OK. We’ll come through with one more picture.

...

haise Three, two, one, mark.

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Day 2 · April 12

houston Good morning, 13. This is Houston. How are you?

lovell Read you loud and clear. We had a fairly good night’s sleep.

houston OK, real fine. ... About the only major thing on the spacecraft is that it’s been getting farther away.

lovell OK. Well, that’s to be expected, I guess.

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lovell Hello there, Houston; 13.

houston 13, Houston. Go ahead.

lovell Gosh, we had forgotten, but we’d like to hear what the news is.

houston OK. There’s not a whole lot to it. ... The Beatles have announced they will no longer perform as a group. The quartet is reported to have made in excess of a half billion dollars during their short musical career. However, rumors that they will use this money to start their own space program are false.

lovell Maybe we could borrow some.

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houston Today’s favorite pastime across the — uh oh, have you guys completed your income tax?

lovell How do I apply for an extension?

houston (Laughter.)

swigert Yeah, Joe. I got to — hey, listen, it ain’t too funny. Things kind of happened real fast down there, and I do need an extension.

houston (Laughter.)

swigert I didn’t get mine filed. I’m really serious, would you ...

houston We’ll see.

swigert I may be spending time in another quarantine besides the one that they are planning for me.

houston We’ll see what we can do, Jack.

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lovell Just a passing comment, Joe. We’re having lunch right now, and I just made myself a hotdog sandwich with ketchup. Very tasty and almost unheard of in the old days.

houston That’s correct, 13. As I recall the flight plan, you’re supposed to put mustard on the hot dogs and not ketchup, but I guess we’ll overlook that.

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Day 3 · April 13

lovell Houston, Houston, Apollo 13. Over.

houston Good morning, 13.

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lovell We are awake and getting the spacecraft shipshape.

houston Roger. Spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we’re concerned, Jim. We’re bored to tears down here.

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houston OK, Jim. It’s been a real good TV show. We think we ought to conclude it from here now. What do you think?

lovell Roger, sounds good. And this is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody there a nice evening, and we’re just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Good night.

houston Thank you, 13.

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houston 13, we’ve got one more item for you, when you get a chance. We’d like you to stir up your cryo tanks. In addition, I have shaft and trunnion for looking at the Comet Bennett, if you need it.

swigert OK, stand by.

swigert OK, Houston ...

lovell ... Houston ...

swigert I believe we’ve had a problem here.

houston This is Houston. Say again, please.

lovell Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a Main B bus undervolt.

houston Roger. Main B undervolt.

houston OK, stand by, 13. We’re looking at it.

haise OK. Right now, Houston, the voltage is — is looking good. And we had a pretty large bang associated with the caution and warning [system] there. And as I recall, Main B was the one that had had an amp spike on it once before.

houston Roger, Fred.

haise In the interim here, we’re starting to go ahead and button up the tunnel again [between the command module and the unoccupied lunar module].

houston Roger.

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swigert OK, Houston. Are you still reading 13?

houston That’s affirmative. We’re reading you. We’re trying to come up with some good ideas here for you.

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haise Fuel cell 1 — nitrogen reads zero.

houston Roger. Zero.

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lovell And, Jack, our O2 [oxygen] quantity Number 2 tank is reading zero. Did you get that?

houston O2 quantity Number 2 is zero.

lovell ... and it looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something out into the — into space.

houston Roger. We copy your venting.

lovell It’s a gas of some sort.

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houston We’re starting to think about the LM [lunar module] lifeboat.

swigert Yes. That’s what we’re thinking about, too.

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houston We figure we’ve got about 15 minutes worth of power left in the command module, so we want you to start getting over in the LM and getting some power on that. And, you ready to copy your procedure?

haise OK.

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houston 13, Houston. We’d like you to start making your way over to the LM now.

swigert Fred and Jim are in the LM.

houston OK, Jack. Thank you.

haise And, Jack, I got LM power on.

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lovell Houston, Aquarius.

houston Go ahead, Aquarius.

lovell OK. Odyssey is completely powered down, according to the procedure that you read to Jack.

houston Roger, we copy. That’s where we want to be, Jim.

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houston Aquarius, Houston. Can you see any stars out the LM window?

haise We’ll have to wipe them off, Jack. They’re coated with water right now.

lovell Can I get a towel?

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lovell OK. I’m looking out of Fred’s window. I see a lot of particles out there, but a lot of that stuff is still drifting away from us, so a lot of it is flashing in the local vicinity, and I don’t recognize any constellations right now, in this particular attitude.

houston OK, Jim. If that status changes, please let us know.

lovell Roger. We’re continuing to drift.

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houston How do you like this sim[ulation]?

haise It’s a beauty.

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houston We recommend you don’t make any urine dumps if you can help it, because it’ll make the debris problem worse than it is now. And we have some items that you might want to transfer to the LM: some towels, some penlights, fecal bags, UTS [urine transfer system]. And do you have any more items that we can help you out with at the moment?

haise OK. Stand by on your latter list there, Jack. I understand no urine dumps. I guess we’ll work through the UCD [urine collection device] and all the bags we got.

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houston And, Aquarius, Houston. We’re starting to think about CO2 buildup up in the command module there, so we’ve got a recommendation. And what we’re recommending is that you take the commander’s hoses in the LM ... and then figure out a way to fasten those hoses so they blow up into the CSM [command and service module] by extending them up through the tunnel as far as possible.

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lovell Houston, we’re trying to extend that commander’s hose by use of the vacuum hose.

houston Sounds like a good plan if you can work that out, Jim.

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lovell Well, I’m afraid this is going to be the last lunar mission for a long time.

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haise How do you read?

houston We read you satisfactorily, Fred.

haise OK.

haise Jim and Jack are in the upstairs bedroom taking a nap now.

houston I didn’t know that was upstairs.

haise We have the first space station.

houston (Laughter.)

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Day 4 · April 14

lovell Boy, we must be getting pretty close to the moon.

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lovell We might need a spare flashlight. Have you got one? OK. OK. The sun has gone down.

lovell Man, look at those stars. Houston.

houston Go ahead, Aquarius.

lovell Roger. We are in the shadow of the moon now. The sun is just about set as far as I can see and the stars are all coming out.

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lovell What’s that cloud I see over there?

haise I don’t know. It looks like a Milky Way.

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lovell I know what that is. That might be the debris that was thrown out there.

haise Into the cloud?

lovell It’s all dark now. From the explosion.

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haise Jack, why don’t you get the other ...?

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lovell All right. We’re going up on Mare Smythii now.

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lovell Oh, yes, yes, we’re no longer 139 miles [from the surface]. We’re leaving.

haise Yes, look at that curvature.

lovell That might be [Mare] Crisium over there, Fred.

haise Oh, yes. Way off on the horizon, there, yes.

lovell Hey, if you want to use the 250[mm]? There’s a beautiful shot of Tsiolkovskiy which we very seldom have.

lovell Let’s get the cameras squared away; let’s get all set to burn. We got one chance now.

swigert OK.

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houston By the way, Aquarius, we see the results now from [Apollo] 12’s seismometer. Looks like your [S-IVB] booster just hit the moon, and it’s rocking it a little bit. Over.

lovell Well, at least something worked on this flight.

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haise I’m sure glad we didn’t have a LM impact, too.

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haise Houston, are you calling Aquarius?

houston Roger, Fred. I would like to confirm that you are getting drinking water out of — potable water out of the command module.

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haise Yes. Jack worked the procedure and filled as many of the drinks as he could, and he made up 10 bags of approximately 8 ounces a bag.

houston OK. We copy that.

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haise Yes, we’re taking about a thousand pictures in between steps there, too.

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lovell I can even see Mount Marilyn [named after Marilyn Lovell, his wife] from here.

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houston Aquarius, Houston. Over.

lovell Go ahead, Houston.

houston Jim, you are Go for the burn. Go for the burn.

lovell Roger. I understand. Go for the burn.

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lovell We’re burning, 40 percent.

houston Houston copies.

lovell 100 percent.

houston Roger.

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lovell Shutdown.

houston Roger. Shutdown.

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houston Good burn, Aquarius.

lovell Go ahead.

houston I say, that was a good burn.

lovell Roger. And now we want to power down as soon as possible.

houston Roger. Understand.

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lovell We’re now in the hands of tracking.

haise Yes. It looks different than before.

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haise You almost can see ...

lovell See Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus — there’s Herschel [near Fra Mauro, their planned landing site].

haise Yes, you can barely see it in the corner there.

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houston We’re working up a procedure for you to use command module LiOH [lithium hydroxide] canisters to connect to your hoses — the outlet hoses in the LM. So that as time passes in the mission you can continue scrubbing the LM atmosphere.

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houston We wish we could send you a kit and it would be kind of like putting a model airplane together or something. As it turns out, this contraption will look like a mailbox when you get it all put together.

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haise Jack and I will go to work on trying to construct that thing. Assume we’ll use the space-age baling wire or the gray tape?

houston That’s affirm. ... You’ll need gray tape to stick the whole thing together, and you need something like a sock to put in the bottom so that the outlet side is plugged up.

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haise From the sounds of all the work that is going on and is still going on, this flight is probably a lot bigger test for the system on the ground than up here.

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houston Well, everybody down here is 100 percent optimistic. Looks like we’re on the up side of the whole thing now.

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haise Jack, I can definitely tell we’re moving away from the moon now. I got it all in the monocular at one time.

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lovell Fred is being relieved now. He’s — went back to get some rest. This is Lovell here who’s got the duty.

houston Gee whiz. You got up kind of early, didn’t you?

lovell It’s cold back there in the command module.

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houston Jim, you’ll be splashing down about 560 miles southeast of Samoa at about 0800 local time.

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lovell Roger. Would you tell the people of the LRL [Lunar Receiving Laboratory, a three-week quarantine facility] to turn it off?

houston Oh, no. We’re going to do the whole bit.

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houston I’d suggest we go ahead and break up these lithium hydroxide canisters and make a couple of them. Jack could work on that. It’s going to take four sets of hands, I think.

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lovell I’ll give Jack the headset for a while and he’ll copy down your instructions.

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houston OK, Jack. Did anybody ever tell you that you got a 60-day extension on your income tax. Over.

swigert Yes. I think — I think somebody said that when you are out of your country, you get a 60-day extension.

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swigert OK, Houston; Aquarius.

houston Aquarius, Houston. Go ahead.

swigert OK. Our do-it-yourself lithium hydroxide canister change is complete.

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houston Set up the second command module canister the same way you just did the first one, using the commander’s hose, and get that all set.

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houston Is it a little chilly up there?

haise Yes. We made the mistake of putting up the window shades, which we won’t do again, and with this powered-down mode we’re not generating much internally, and it really did get chilly.

houston Yes. I guess you’ll have to generate your own heat in there for a while.

houston Deke says unstow the Exer-Genie [in-flight exerciser].

haise OK.

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haise I was just going to say we haven’t had an overboard waste water dump since clear back around the other side of the moon. About this time, we’re running out of the bags we’ve got on board here.

houston OK. I’m — I’m stupid this morning, Fred. I’m not quite sure what you are getting at.

haise OK, Joe. We need some place to put the urine.

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Day 5 · April 15

houston And Jack, Houston. For your information, FIDO [flight dynamics officer] tells me that we are in the Earth’s sphere of influence and we’re starting to accelerate.

swigert I thought it was about time we crossed. Thank you.

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haise With all these other procedures you’ve been working on there, I thought I was going to have a new one for you. How to get four gingerbread cubes apart? I think they were stuck together with epoxy.

houston This is in the food bag?

haise Yes.

houston That’s to stand loads of launch and boost.

haise Roger. Tool B did the trick.

houston Hey, Fred. John says you can use the dikes [diagonal cutters] on it to get them apart.

haise Yes, that probably wouldn’t have crumbled them as badly. I generally don’t use the subtle approach. You can tell we’re feeling pretty good, Vance, when we start complaining about the food.

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swigert Right now, we’re getting two sets of CWGs [cotton underwear] on.

swigert It’s not uncomfortable at all in Aquarius, but it definitely is cold in Odyssey.

houston Roger.

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houston Our readings down here say your LM cabin’s about as cold as the command module cabin. Is that right?

lovell Well, we really don’t know. There’s usually two people in the LM cabin, and it’s a lot — it seems to be a lot more compact, and so we don’t notice the coldness down here as we do in the command module.

houston OK.

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Day 6 · April 16

haise Houston, Aquarius.

houston Go ahead, Aquarius.

haise About how far out are we now, Jack?

houston OK, Aquarius. You’re 150,000 miles and you’re coming in at 4,500 feet a second. That’s from the Earth.

haise OK.

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lovell Joe, you might pass to our friends in crew systems that lunar boots make great footwarmers.

houston I guess you need them up there, too. Is anybody sleeping in the command module right now, Jim?

lovell Negative, Joe. It’s just too cold in there.

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lovell Another note of interest to the crew systems people: Tell them that they don’t have to bother putting the refrigerator onboard. I just brought out some hot dogs, and they’re practically frozen.

houston (Laughter) OK. We copy that, Jim.

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haise How do you read, Vance?

houston Hey, loud and clear, Fred. Understand you’ve been doing some spring housecleaning, moving stowage around up there.

haise Boy, you wouldn’t believe this LM right now. It’s nothing but bags from floor to ceiling.

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haise And there was one piece of flight data that we needed that we didn’t bring along this time.

houston What was that?

haise That’s a big book with a lot of just plain old blank pages in it.

houston Yes, when you get off-nominal, why, you just need scratch paper, don’t you?

haise Yes.

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swigert OK, going back up into the refrigerator.

houston Hey, I thought it was the bedroom.

swigert Well, it’s got a new name now, because it is about 30 degrees cooler.

houston Roger. Returning to the deep freeze.

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lovell Houston, Aquarius.

houston Go ahead, Jim.

lovell OK. We have no more water in the potable tank. We tried to get some more out a few minutes ago, and there isn’t any.

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houston We understood that you had put some water from that tank into bags, and I wondered if any of the bags were left.

swigert Negative.

houston OK.

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swigert All the windows in the command module are heavily coated with water right now. So I don’t know what kind of pictures we’ll get out of them, but I’m going to try and clean them off and do the best I can with the 250mm lens on the Hasselblad.

houston Roger.

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Day 7 · April 17

houston I know none of you are sleeping worth a damn because it’s so cold, and you might want to dig out the medical kit there ... and pull out a couple of Dexedrines [stimulants] apiece ...

lovell Well, I hadn’t brought that up. We might — we might consider it.

houston OK. Wish we could figure a way to get a hot cup of coffee up to you. It’d probably taste pretty good about now, wouldn’t it?

lovell Yes, it sure would. You don’t realize how cold this thing becomes.

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houston Hang in there. It won’t be long now.

lovell Yes. That’s right. As a matter of fact, doing this alignment on the Earth this time will be like making a landing with a fogged-up windshield.

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houston Aquarius, Houston.

lovell Go ahead, Houston.

houston OK, Skipper. We figured out a way for you to keep warm. We decided to start powering you up now.

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lovell Sounds good, and you’re sure we have plenty of electrical power to do this?

houston That’s affirmative.

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lovell It’s going to be interesting today, Jack. The Earth’s a lot bigger; the crescent is a lot more pronounced than it was yesterday.

houston Well, you’re going in the right direction.

lovell That’s right.

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lovell And, it’s getting a little warmer in here now. Thank you.

houston Duck blinds are always warmer, Jim, when the birds are flying.

lovell Right.

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lovell The sun feels wonderful. It’s shining in the rendezvous window.

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houston Keeping warm?

swigert Hey, it’s warmed up here now. It’s almost comfortable.

lovell I’m looking out the window now, Jack, and that Earth is whistling in like a high-speed freight train.

houston We’re clocking you at 48,000 miles and coming in at about 9,000 [feet per second].

lovell I don’t think there’s many LMs that have seen it like this. I’m still looking for Fra Mauro and Cone Crater.

houston You’re going the wrong way, son.

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houston Aquarius, Houston. We have 10 seconds until nine minutes to the burn. Three, two, one ... mark. Nine minutes.

lovell Very well.

...

haise We’re burning.

houston Copy that, Fred.

houston Good show, Aquarius.

lovell We’re tweaking now, Joe.

houston Roger. Aquarius, Houston. You’re good right where you are.

lovell OK. That’s it.

haise OK. If you’re happy, can we maneuver to service module sep[aration] attitude now?

houston That’s affirmative, Aquarius.

...

houston Hey, Jim, have you broken into the medical kit per my recommendation a few hours ago?

lovell Yes. Everything is taken care of, Deke.

houston OK, fine. You might hit it again in about two hours.

lovell OK.

...

lovell SM sep.

houston Copy that.

lovell Do you see it, Jack?

...

lovell OK, I’ve got her, Houston.

houston Beautiful, beautiful. ... Over.

lovell And there’s one whole side of that spacecraft missing.

houston Is that right?

lovell Right by the — Look out there, will you? Right by the high gain antenna, the whole panel is blown out, almost from the base to the engine.

houston Copy that.

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houston OK, Jim. We’d like you to get some pictures, but we want you to conserve RCS [thrusters]. Don’t make unnecessary maneuvers.

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lovell All right. She’s drifting right down in front of our windows now, Houston.

houston OK.

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haise Man, that’s unbelievable!

lovell And, Joe, looks like a lot of — a lot of debris is just hanging out the side near the S-band antenna.

houston Roger, Jim.

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lovell Jack just came down the tunnel again and said the computer’s OK.

houston OK. Good to hear it.

...

lovell Well, I can’t say that this week hasn’t been filled with excitement.

houston Well, James, if you can’t take any better care of a spacecraft than that, we might not give you another one.

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houston OK, Aquarius; Houston. With the present amount of power you’ve got in the LM, ... we figure you’ve got almost 12 hours of power left.

lovell 12 hours, huh? We could re-enter with it.

houston That’s affirm. That’s enough for two touch-and-goes and a full stop, Jim.

lovell That’s right, Joe. If you could dig a crater like Cone Crater, I could might hit it.

houston (Laughter.) OK.

...

houston OK, you’re Go to start powering up the command module.

lovell Right-o. We’re starting now.

...

houston We have command module AOS [acquisition of signal]. Request Omni Charlie in the CM. Over.

lovell Omni Charlie. OK. Standby. Coming up.

houston OK.

lovell That was sent through a new onboard communication system known as yelling through the tunnel.

...

lovell I’ve got Fred up there with Jack now helping to power up the CM, and I’m staying down in good old Aquarius.

houston Understand, Jim.

...

houston Just to inform you. We’ve got data from the — from Odyssey, and it looks good.

lovell Hey, great.

...

houston OK, Odyssey, Houston.

swigert Go ahead.

...

houston You’re looking good on the ground, Odyssey.

haise OK.

...

lovell OK, Houston; Aquarius. I am at the LM sep attitude and I’m planning on bailing out.

houston OK. I can’t think of a better idea, Jim.

...

swigert OK. We’re ready to proceed with hatch closeup.

houston OK. Did Jim get the film out of Aquarius?

swigert Yes. We — you mean the film we took this morning?

houston That’s affirm.

swigert Yes, we’ve transferred that.

...

houston Odyssey, Houston. We just had a formal Go for LM jett[ison] at your convenience. Over.

swigert OK. Thanks, Joe.

...

swigert 10 seconds.

lovell Five. LM jettison.

houston OK, copy that. Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.

...

houston OK, Jim. Your cabin is looking real good. We recommend you turn the suit compressor to off now. Over.

lovell Going off. Boy, it’s nice and quiet in here.

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swigert Joe, how far out do you show us now?

houston Oh, on our plot board up here, we can’t hardly see how far out you are.

swigert OK.

swigert I know all of us here want to thank all you guys down there for the very fine job you did.

lovell That’s affirm, Joe.

houston I’ll tell you — we all had a good time doing it.

...

houston You’re looking good. We’re real happy with the trajectory, and a minute ago we just lost contact with your friend Aquarius.

swigert OK. Where did she go?

houston Oh, I don’t know. She’s up there somewhere.

swigert She sure was a good ship.

...

swigert Sure wish I could go to the FIDO party tonight.

houston (Laughter.) Yes, it’s going to be a wild one.

houston Somebody said, “We’ll cover for you guys — and if Jack’s got any phone numbers he wants us to call, why, pass them down.”

...

houston Odyssey, Houston. Over.

swigert Go ahead.

houston OK, LOS [loss of signal during re-entry] is about a minute or a minute and a half ... and welcome home. Over.

swigert Thank you.

...

houston Odyssey, Houston. We show you on the mains, it really looks great. Got you on television, babe.

...

Recovery Helicopters Apollo 13, Apollo 13, this is Recovery. Over. Apollo 13.

swigert Go ahead. See you loud and clear going through 5,000 [feet].

Recovery Helicopters Roger, Apollo 13. This is Recovery and your chutes look good.

...

Recovery Helicopters Splashdown at this time. The three chutes are displaced. They’re in the water.

This project combines condensed mission transcripts with selected photographs taken by the Apollo 13 astronauts: James A. Lovell Jr., Fred W. Haise Jr. and John L. Swigert Jr.

Sources: NASA; Apollo Flight Journal; NASA Scientific Visualization Studio; U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center; Paul White. Photos from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Project Apollo Archive and the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Seismometer chart modified from Highlights of Astronomy, International Astronomical Union.