From left, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, April/May 1970

This picture dates from around April/May 1970, after Apollo 13 came back to Earth and the long process of figuring out what made the service module EXPLODE was just beginning. I’m certain this was a fairly tedious, frustrating process, and the boys of Apollo 13 hopefully had some fun diversions to at least chat about in the midst of having to look at millions of pieces of data and schematics. Eventually the near-disaster would be traced to a faulty fuel tank.

Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. In January 2019, Emily’s This Space Available blog was incorporated into the National Space Society’s blog. The content of Emily’s blog can be accessed via the This Space Available blog category.

Note: The views expressed in This Space Available are those of the author and should not be considered as representing the positions or views of the National Space Society.