April 6, 2020 - The Aid of Aquarius

The Aid of Aquarius Fifty years ago this week, the Apollo 13 spacecraft, en route to the Moon for the third human landing, suffered an explosion that crippled the command module, Odyssey. The three astronauts (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert) sought refuge in the small lunar module, Aquarius, while the damaged spacecraft looped around the Moon to return to Earth. Although it was designed to support two astronauts for just two days on the lunar surface, Aquarius ended up keeping all three astronauts alive for nearly five days. Lovell, who had orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, is the only astronaut to have traveled to the Moon twice without landing on it. Shown here at the Kennedy Space Center in January 1970, Haise (right) tries out a motorized core sampler while Lovell (left) looks on.

Image Credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

April 6 - 12, 2020

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 6

1965: Early Bird (Intelsat 1) launched
1984: STS-41C Challenger launched

Tuesday 7

Moon at perigee
Full Moon 10:35 PM ET

1991: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory deployed
2001: Mars Odyssey Orbiter launched
2007: ISS Expedition 15 crew launched

Wednesday 8

Passover begins at sunset

1964: Gemini I launched
1966: OAO-1 launched
1993: STS-56 Discovery launched
2002: STS-110 Atlantis launched
2008: ISS Expedition 17 crew launched