Apollo 13 crew (L-R): Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise
Mission patch
What more can be said about Apollo 13 that hasn't already? It launched April 11, 1970 with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, the seventh manned mission of the Apollo program and the third mission planned to land on the moon.
Two days later, an oxygen tank exploded and they had to abort the moon landing.
They managed to make it back home safe and sound April 17.
Jim Lovell, born March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, made two flights in NASA's Gemini program and two in the Apollo program, including the Apollo 13 mission. He was the first person to go into space four times, is one of twenty-four people to fly to the moon, and one of three people to fly to the moon twice, although he did not make a landing.
His first mission was pilot on Gemini VII with Command Pilot Frank Borman in December 1965, and they spent 14 days in orbit.
His second flight was as Commander of Gemini XII with pilot Buzz Aldrin in November 1966. They performed three EVAs and conducted the fourth space docking with the Agena target vehicle, proving men could work outside a spacecraft, which paved the way for sending men to the moon.
His third flight was on Apollo 8 as Command Module Pilot with Frank Borman and William Anders in December 1968. It was the second manned mission of the Apollo program and the first to leave Earth's orbit, reach the moon, orbit it and then return safely to Earth.
Lovell's fourth and final flight was as Commander aboard Apollo 13, with Jack Swigert and Fred Haise in April 1970. The disaster that occurred during the mission has been immortalized in the movie Apollo 13. Tom Hanks portrayed Jim Lovell in the movie. Lovell is the one who uttered the famous phrase: "Houston, we've had a problem."
Fred Haise, born November 14, 1933 in Biloxi, Mississippi, was an astronaut on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. After high school, he served in the US Marines as a fighter pilot. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degreee in aeronautical engineering in 1959 before becoming an astronaut.
Haise was scheduled to be the sixth human to walk on the moon during the Apollo 13 mission behind Jim Lovell, who was to be the fifth. Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot. Of course, we all know they didn't get to land on the moon but they returned to Earth safely. Bill Paxton played Haise in the movie Apollo 13.
He was backup for the Apollo 16 mission and was slated for the Apollo 19 mission, but the latter was cancelled due to budget cuts. Haise left NASA in 1979.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise made her fifth and final successful flight October 26, 1977. She was piloted by Fred Haise (Apollo 13) and Gordon Fullerton (STS-3, STS-51-F). She also landed on the concrete runway at Edwards AFB instead of a dry lakebed runway.
Her successful missions paved the way for future space shuttle missions.
