On This Day: Ill-fated Apollo 13 blasts off

UPI ^ | 4/11/25 | UPI Staff

[DallasBiff]

On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the third U.S. moon-landing mission.

[DallasBiff]

Remember this as a kid. Thank god all survived, but it highlights the bad luck of the number 13.

Apollo 13, launched at 13:00(military time), and the explosion happened on April 13th.

[1Old Pro]

good thing there are only 12 months in a year.

[Red Badger]

LUNAR years occasionally have 13.................

[1Old Pro]

LUNAR years occasionally have 13.......

Thanks, what are you debbie downer :)

[Red Badger]

1970 wasn’t one of them, though...........

[Tell It Right]

Loved Tom Hanks’ portrayal of Lovell in the movie from decades ago. As well as Hanks’ push for the WW2 memorial at around that time. That was before Hanks went out of his way to make it easy to hate him.

[fidelis]

[Jan_Sobieski]

There are some who believe Apollo 13 was a “staged” mishap to make the studio moon landings more believable

[Jolla]

13 months was considered - 28 days each.

[1Old Pro]

In this case “lunar” was lucky, as in “Aquarius”.

[1Old Pro]

There are some who believe Apollo 13 was a “staged” mishap

Like the Biden presidency

[Empire_of_Liberty]

Actually, I think it highlights the atheistic hubris that overtook NASA.

[FamiliarFace]

When the Dragon 9 team landed a few weeks ago, it reminded me of Apollo 13 return. I had to watch the movie agin. To my kids, like most of the space program, it’s a few paragraphs in a history book. For my husband and me, it was a witnessed life event. Televised, yes, but not just words in a book.

[silent majority rising]

Friday the 13th. See, the curse must be true.

[Justa]

“There are some who believe Apollo 13 was a “staged” mishap to make the studio moon...”

Just you.

The Soviets themselves tracked in-the-clear voice and telemetry radio signals from the moon. There is no doubt -except with Demoralization trolls.

[GingisK]

When the Dragon 9 team landed a few weeks ago

...returned to Earth?

[FamiliarFace]

Yes, when the dragon 9 crew returned to earth, splashed down in the Gulf of America. Sorry, not technically “landed.”

[George from New England]

Glad to see UPI still exists

[GingisK]

Maybe "oceaned"? ;-D

I'm useless, but having fun.

[packrat35]

By the time, Apollo 13 took out, space flight was considered so routine that it wasn’t covered live. Then, the accident happened.

Challenger was the same. Only CNN carried it live...

The next mission, Apollo 14 was definitely covered live.