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| On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13, which was the third moon-landing mission of NASA, launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S. It was supported by astronauts Jim Lovell (R), Jack Swigert (C) and Fred Haise (L). However, things took an unfortunate turn and the mission was aborted due to a rupture and later explosion of an oxygen tank. The Apollo aircraft circled the moon without landing, and returned on Earth safely on April 17. |
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| Lovell practices flag deployment on Feb. 4. |
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| The Apollo 13 crew travel from the suiting station to a van that will transport them to the rocket site on April 11. |
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| The severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) is photographed from the lunar module. An entire panel on the SM was blown away by the explosion of an oxygen tank. |
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| A view of the NASA control room during the return of Apollo 13. |
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| A Navy helicopter hovers over the Apollo 13 capsule in the Pacific Ocean as frogmen release the astronauts. The USS Iwo Jima recovery vessel waits nearby. |
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| The three astronauts are seen after their rescue. |
Life aboard Nasa’s ill-fated Apollo 13 mission has been revealed in unprecedented detail thanks to a series of enhanced images originally taken 50 years ago.
The spacecraft was supposed to become Nasa’s third to land on the moon in 1970 before an explosion jeopardised the lives of the three astronauts on board and forced them to make a dramatic journey home.
Fifty years on from the mission, imaging specialist Andy Saunders has managed to produce the clearest pictures yet from the craft, using low-quality 16mm film shot by the crew.
Mr Saunders used a technique called “stacking” to bring together multiple frames on top of each other to improve the detail of the images.
In one picture, Commander Jim Lovell can be seen selecting some music on a tape player as the crew prepares for their return to Earth.
Mr Saunders said it was striking in the footage how calm the crew appeared, even though they faced an extremely challenging journey home.
“This perhaps belies their true feelings as we know that, in reality, the crew doubted if they would make it home alive,” he told the BBC
The enhanced images were released as two of the astronauts involved in the near-disastrous mission said they still viewed the aborted trip as a success.
Mr Lovell described Apollo 13’s return to Earth as a “miraculous recovery”, while Fred Haise said it was a “great mission” despite its difficulties.
Mr Haise said the journey showed “what can be done if people use their minds and a little ingenuity”.
The astronauts also insisted they were not superstitious about the trip and said they both used the number 13 in their email addresses.
Jack Swigert, the craft’s third crew member, died in 1982 after being diagnosed with cancer.
