Questions tagged [apollo-13]

Questions regarding Apollo 13 which is launched as a part of American Apollo space program by Saturn v from Kennedy Space Center in April 11, 1970 carrying three crew members but lunar landing was aborted because of rapture of oxygen tank and few technical problems after injection to orbit

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Was Apollo 13 radio blackout on reentry longer than expected?

According to the movie Apollo 13 (1995) the radio blackout on reentry was quite a bit longer than expected. Very dramatic, yes, but: Did that really happen, and if so, why was it so much longer than expected (or was there typically that much…
davidbak
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Was not saving the Apollo 13 astronauts ever considered as an option?

This is a bit of a morbid question, but every source I have checked makes it seem like the moment Apollo 13 had their accident and everyone understood the gravity of the situation, everyone was in agreement that the astronauts had to return to Earth…
Nzall
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Did the crew lock themselves inside the LM on Apollo 13?

Watching and reading about Apollo 13 I am a little confused. They left the Command Module to use the Lunar Module as a lifeboat but did they close the hatch between the 2 to ensure the CM didn’t use up resources keeping warm etc? If not why did they…
Richard C
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Why did Apollo 13 not use the electronics waste heat to raise the Lunar Module cabin temperature?

From Apollo 13 Mission Report: For the metric impaired like me, 41 °F is 5 °C, 54 °F is 12.2 °C and 60 °F is 15.6 °C. About 300 W of waste heat plus the body heat of three astronauts, about 250 W, together about 550 W should be enough to heat the…
Uwe
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Why didn't the Apollo 13 crew wear their spacesuits in the LM?

In the Apollo 13 movie, the crew take refuge in the Lunar Module, the temperature drops and they suffer the cold in their shirtsleeves. Is this accurate? Is there a reason they couldn't wear their A7L pressure suits to keep warm? I don't mean…
Dave Gremlin
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Was Apollo 13's engine really damaged?

According to this answer, turning on Apollo 13's Service Module Propulsion System was considered risky since ground control ditn't know if it was damages in the explosion Perform a PC+2 hour abort burn with the Service Module Propulsion System for…
shuttle
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What was the available delta v of the Apollo 13 spacecraft, post explosion?

The LM ascent engine wasn't used for direct abort. Presuming no one cares about the crew and just wanted to burn the LM to empty (both stages), what would the delta v have been? If it helps, I'm ok with it if you assume the O2 tanks were completely…
Michael Stachowsky
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Did the service module in Apollo 13 do anything useful after the explosion, so that keeping it attached was important?

I realize they didn't know what happened so probably didn't know that there was such extensive damage. However, they didn't eject the service module. Why was that? Did it serve some useful purpose still? Were they just not ready for it?
Michael Stachowsky
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