President Richard M. Nixon and the Apollo 13 crew salute the U.S. flag during the post-mission ceremonies at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Earlier, astronauts John Swigert, Jim Lovell, and Fred W. Haise were presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the Chief Executive. Apollo 13, launched on April 11, 1970, was NASA s third crewed mission to the moon. Two days later, on April 13, while en route to the lunar surface, a fault in the electrical system of one of the Service Module s oxygen tanks produced an explosion that caused both oxygen tanks to fail and also led to a loss of electrical power. With the mission aborted, a dedicated team in the Apollo Mission Control Center devoted their efforts to developing a plan to shelter the crew in the lunar module as a lifeboat and retain sufficient resources to bring the spacecraft and its WAX2020041303 NASA

President Richard M. Nixon and the Apollo 13 crew salute the U.S. flag during the post-mission ceremonies at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Earlier, astronauts John Swigert, Jim Lovell, and Fred W. Haise were presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the Chief Executive. Apollo 13, launched on April 11, 1970, was NASA s third crewed mission to the moon. Two days later, on April 13, while en route to the lunar surface, a fault in the electrical system of one of the Service Module s oxygen tanks produced an explosion that caused both oxygen tanks to fail and also led to a loss of electrical power. With the mission aborted, a dedicated team in the Apollo Mission Control Center devoted their efforts to developing a plan to shelter the crew in the lunar module as a lifeboat and retain sufficient resources to bring the spacecraft and its WAX2020041303 NASA