History

An oxygen tank explosion turned a Moon landing into a rescue mission

Two days into the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, an oxygen tank ruptured 200,000 miles from Earth, crippling the spacecraft and scrapping the Moon landing. Engineers on the ground improvised a carbon-dioxide filter from spare parts using only what the astronauts had on board, famously including duct tape. All three astronauts returned home alive, in what NASA still calls a 'successful failure'.

NASA, Apollo 13 — mission history, 1970

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