Homer himself could not have written a more captivating story than the flight of Apollo 13. On April 11 1970 veteran astronaut Jim Lovell and his crewmates Jack Swigert and Fred Haise rode atop the eighth launch of the Saturn V juggernaut to begin their ill-fated journey to the moon. The aptly named Command Module Odyssey and the reluctant Lunar Module - lifeboat Aquarius were to take the three men to a date with the lunar highland area known as Fra Mauro but fate and a faulty circuit in one of the vehicle's oxygen tanks would irrevocably alter their plans and turn the flight of Apollo 13 into an epic to rival the original Odyssey. After an explosion in the Service Module crippled the spacecraft while it was still outward bound the crew would spend several harrowing days in near frigid temperatures while the technicians at home worked around the clock to devise new and ingenious ways to keep them alive and bring them home safely. In 1970 some considered Apollo 13 a catastrophic failure but it has since been recognised as one of NASA's truly great moments, when the spirit of daring and ingenuity came to life in the team at Mission Control as they successfully brought the crew home.
