Launched unpiloted on May 14, 1973, Skylab was a complex orbiting scientific laboratory that set the stage for the International Space Station of today and long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars in the future. Three crews of astronauts performed microgravity experiments for up to three months in a shirtsleeve environment.
In the moments following Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell’s report, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” things happened fast. Lovell and his crewmates, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, worked with the team in Mission Control to sort out the issues facing the mission. But, key members of that effort believe they also were aided by a Higher Power.
What was to have been America’s third lunar landing in April 1970, became a struggle to safely return the crew after an oxygen tank explosion crippled the crew’s spacecraft. During a reunion of key players involved in the Apollo 13 mission, they recalled what has been termed “NASA’s finest hour.”