Anderson Design Group

NASA 1970: Apollo 13 By Aaron Johnson, Joel Anderson, 2024


© 2024 Anderson Design Group, Inc. All rights reserved. It is a Federal Copyright offense to reproduce this image without permission.

"Houston, we've had a problem". This famous line summed up the Apollo 13 mission (April 11–17, 1970). It was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) ruptured two days into the mission, disabling its electrical and life-support system. The crew, supported by backup systems on the lunar module (LM), instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot and Fred Haise as lunar module (LM) pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to the measles. A routine stir of an oxygen tank ignited damaged wire insulation inside it, causing an explosion that vented the contents of both of the SM's oxygen tanks to space. Without oxygen, needed for breathing and for generating electric power, the SM's propulsion and life support systems could not operate. The CM's systems had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the LM as a lifeboat. With the lunar landing canceled, mission controllers worked to bring the crew home alive. This retro-styled interstellar illustration will look great as an art print, notecard, postcard, metal sign, canvas, or mini canvas. To learn more about space travel and what the next big space adventure plans are, check out the official website for NASA.

Sign up for our weekly email and get 10% off your first order.