Apollo 13's planned Moon landing was abandoned after an oxygen-tank failure disabled the spacecraft's normal power source. This video follows the recovery in sequence: the first burn restored a free-return path, a guidance-alignment check preceded the later PC+2 burn that shortened the return, and the crew used the Lunar Module as a lifeboat while the ground team worked through power, water and carbon-dioxide problems.
The story ends with the crew returning to Odyssey for Earth entry and splashdown. Original reconstructions illustrate the mission; the cause section follows the later Review Board investigation, rather than what the crew knew during the emergency.
Chapters
00:00 Power Loss and the First Burn
03:28 Guidance Check and a Shorter Trip
06:56 Back in Odyssey and Home
Music: original score created for this GreenSpacealien video, with no third-party recordings or samples.
Sources and further reading
NASA — Apollo 13 Mission Report (1970)
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19710003598/downloads/19710003598.pdf
NASA — Apollo 13 Mission Summary
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/SP-4029/Apollo_13a_Summary.htm
NASA — Apollo 13 Press Kit
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/a13/Apollo13_PressKit_restored.pdf
NASA — Apollo 13 Technical Air-to-Ground Transcript
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/as13-tec.pdf
NASA — Apollo 13 Review Board report
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20170000913/downloads/20170000913.pdf
Historical photograph credit: NASA/JSC, AS13-62-8929 — the Lunar Module carbon-dioxide "mailbox" adapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itSirpbhSss
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