Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American
Apollo space program and the third intended to
land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13
CST from the
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the
Service Module (SM) upon which the
Command Module (CM) depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to
jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to
Earth on April 17.