CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronaut Fred W. Haise Jr., Apollo 13 lunar module pilot, practices operating the 16-millimeter motion picture camera to be used on the lunar surface during the Apollo 13 mission. The Apollo 13 landing was scheduled for the Fra Mauro highlands, an area approximately 95 miles east of the Apollo 12 landing site in November 1969.
Apollo 13, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970 but commander James A. Lovell Jr., and Haise never made their planned lunar landing. About 56 hours into their mission, an oxygen tank on the Apollo 13 spacecraft's service module exploded, starving the command module of the power and oxygen needed to continue the mission as planned. Using the lunar module as a life boat, the crew circled the Moon without landing, and successfully returned home to Earth unharmed.
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Credit: NASA
Image Number: KSC-70PC-0018
Date: January 28, 1970
