Only brilliant response to this emergency coupled with an awesome amount of undaunted fortitude and faith on the part of the astronauts saved thier lives.
The Apollo 13 mission was carried out with increased confidence bred by previous success, and a disregard for the un-luck of a number still observed by those who number the floors of many skyscrapers. All the way to the Moon things ran more smoothly than ever. Everybody was greatly pleased, and then, on April 13th, 1970, in orbit around the Moon an unthinkable thing happened on the spacecraft. There was a massive explosion. The supplies of water, oxygen, and electricity for the command module were lost. The lunar landings were cancelled, and all the best minds at NASA were engaged in the daunting task of figuring out how to get three men in a damaged spacecraft across 200,000 miles of vacuum, and back to Earth safely.
Those are among the tensest days in the history of the Apollo program. It was an oxygen tank which exploded, but since they had not yet gone to the moon, all the lunar lander's oxygen was still available as well as that for the space suits they had intended to use there. Oxygen was not the problem. Water and electricity however were both in short supply due to the damages. NASA had to seriously contemplate the real possibility of losing three men in space.
After a feverish amount of work and calculation both on the ground and in space a plan was formulated. The men were cut to a ration of 6 ounces of water a day. All electrical systems aboard the command module were shut down with about 15 minutes of battery power left. All three men would live for the next four days in the lunar module, and the unburned rockets intended for the lunar landing were to be burned to slingshot the craft around the Moon, and accelerate its return and correct its trajectory back to Earth.
Emergency life or death procedures for the astronauts to employ were figured out using what they had available, and then radioed up and executed by three very brave, and doubtless very scared men. Some of these procedures used duct tape, card board, and plastic bags. Carbon monoxide filters from the command module were rigged into the lunar module so that the men would be able to continue to breathe.
Batteries were very short, and any further malfunction or loss of electrical power would have been catastrophic. Through the greatest care and effort of those on the ground all obstacles were overcome, and the command module reentered the earth's atmosphere, and three very tired and dehydrated astronauts were welcomed safely back to Earth with sighs of relief from an entire nation.
