Not only did Apollo 13 get the science right, but the film accurately portrayed the events of the real space disaster by adhering to the timeline as recorded in Jim Lovell's book. Beyond that, the filmmakers and set designers went to great effort to recreate the space capsule and command center's actual environment.
'Apollo 13' is considered an accurate portrayal of a space mission. Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield sat down with Vanity Fair in 2020 to discuss the accuracy of various space movies.
To recreate weightlessness for Apollo 13's space sequences, veteran director Ron Howard chose not to use special effects and wires to simulate zero gravity. Instead, the film crew modified a KC-135 reduced-gravity Stratotanker, a plane dubbed the "Vomit Comet," to achieve the effect of weightlessness through free fall.
Anachronisms. The Apollo 13 Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle is depicted as being delivered to the Launch Pad on April 9, 1970 - two (2) days before launch. Much more "pad time" was required, and Apollo 13 was actually delivered to Launch Pad 39A on December 15, 1969.
Cameos: Jim Lovell appears as captain of the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima; Howard had intended to make him an admiral, but Lovell himself, having retired as a captain, chose to appear in his actual rank. Marilyn Lovell appears among the spectators during the launch sequence.
Two of the three astronauts (Lovell and Haise) are still alive today. Sadly, Swigert died in 1982 due to complications from cancer in 1982.
While talking to Hollywood Outbreak, Tom Hanks shared, “We just felt like an absolute idiot when Jim Lovell came by and we were flicking switches.” But to everyone's surprise, Jim said, “Hey, it looks like a real thing.” The actor shared that he was in doubt if they were giving justice to the real-life incident.
Book Details. The bold story of Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who worked for NASA during the space race and was depicted in the film Hidden Figures. You've likely heard of the historic Apollo 13 moon landing.
During this flight Haise developed a urinary tract infection and later kidney infections. These caused him to be in pain for most of the trip. Haise was slated to become the sixth human to walk on the Moon during Apollo 13 behind Lovell, who was to be fifth.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
The command module was dying, quickly. But the lunar lander, docked to the command module, was intact. Under the direction of Glynn Lunney, the flight director whose shift followed Mr. Kranz's, the Apollo 13 astronauts scrambled into the lunar module, which served as their lifeboat.
Apollo 13 (1995) - Karen Martin as Tracey - IMDb.
3.5 Apollo 13
During the second period, the Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot slept 5, 6, and 9 hours, respectively. The third sleep period was scheduled for 61 hours, but the orygen tank incident at 56 hours precluded sleep by any of the crew until approximately 80 hours.
During the Apollo 13 mission, the LM environmental control system provided a habitable environment for about 83 hours (57:45 to 141:05 GET). Cabin temperature remained low due to low electrical power levels. This caused crew discomfort during much of this period, with cabin temperatures ranging between 49°F and 55 °F.
Marilyn Lovell really did lose her ring down the drain, but eventually found it again. When the real Jim Lovell saw the film, he found the CGI work so convincing that he firmly believed that the filmmakers had uncovered some hitherto unseen NASA footage.
(Image credit: NASA.) Mattingly finally made it to the moon himself on Apollo 16. He performed observations and experiments from orbit while his crewmates, John Young and Charles Duke, did 20-plus hours of exploration on the surface.
As the Apollo 13 crew re-entered the Earth's atmosphere there was a blackout period where they couldn't communicate with mission control. The blackout period was supposed to last three minutes, but it lasted 90 seconds longer, leaving those at mission control unaware if the crew were going to make it home safely.
Haise, along with commander Jim Lovell, was supposed to walk on the moon during Apollo 13. That all changed on April 13, 1970, when an oxygen tank exploded and badly damaged the command module, Odyssey.
Apollo 1 was expected to fly to Earth orbit later in 1967 with astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White on board. During a test on the launch pad, however, a fire erupted and rapidly asphyxiated all three astronauts.
The movie “Hidden Figures” follows the true story of these three women, who all began their journey working at NASA as a part of the West Computers, a segregated group of African American women hired to process aeronautic data in the Space Race era.
With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 13 mission that never made it to the moon, the one where Commander Jim Lovell uttered the phrase “Houston, we've had a problem.” NASA calls the mission a “successful failure,” because even though an explosion crippled the primary spacecraft two days in, Lovell ...
In real life, the quote was "Houston, we've had a problem." Apollo Expeditions to the Moon, ch. 13.1, by James A. Lovell. The original phrase pronounced by Jack Swigert, "Houston, we've had a problem here" and then repeated by Lovell, "Houston, we've had a problem", was altered to a present-tense in the film script.
Their moon-bound spacecraft wrecked by an oxygen tank explosion on April 13, 1970, the astronauts urgently radioed, “Houston, we've had a problem here.” Screenwriters for the 1995 film 'Apollo 13' wanted to punch that up. Thus was born, “Houston, we have a problem.”