Background

In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy challenged his nation to land an astronaut
on the Moon by the end of the decade, with a safe return to Earth.[11] NASA worked
towards this goal incrementally, sending astronauts into space during Project
Mercury and Project Gemini, leading up to the Apollo program.[12] The goal was
achieved with Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited
the Moon in Command Module Columbia. The mission returned to Earth on July 24,
1969, fulfilling Kennedy's challenge.[11]

NASA had contracted for fifteen Saturn V rockets to achieve the goal; at the time no
one knew how many missions this would require.[13] Since success was obtained in
1969 with the sixth Saturn V on Apollo 11, nine rockets remained available for a
hoped-for total of ten landings. After the excitement of Apollo 11, the general public
grew apathetic towards the space program and Congress continued to cut NASA's
budget; Apollo 20 was canceled.[14] Despite the successful lunar landing, the missions
were considered so risky that astronauts could not afford life insurance to provide for
their families if they died in space.[note 2][15]

Mission Operations Control Room during the TV broadcast

just before the Apollo 13 accident. Astronaut Fred Haise is shown on the screen.
Even before the first U.S. astronaut entered space in 1961, planning for a centralized
facility to communicate with the spacecraft and monitor its performance had begun,
for the most part the brainchild of Christopher C. Kraft Jr., who became NASA's
first flight director. During John Glenn's Mercury Friendship 7 flight in February 1962
(the first crewed orbital flight by the U.S.), one of Kraft's decisions was overruled by
NASA managers. He was vindicated by post-mission analysis and implemented a
rule that, during the mission, the flight director's word was absolute[16] – to overrule
him, NASA would have to fire him on the spot.[17] Flight directors during Apollo had a
one-sentence job description, "The flight director may take any actions necessary for
crew safety and mission success."[18]

Houston's Mission Control Center was opened in 1965. It was in part designed by
Kraft and now named for him.[16] In Mission Control, each flight controller, in addition
to monitoring telemetry from the spacecraft, was in communication via voice loop to
specialists in a Staff Support Room (or "back room"), who focused on specific
spacecraft systems.[17]

Apollo 13 was to be the second H mission, meant to demonstrate precision lunar

landings and explore specific sites on the Moon.[19] With Kennedy's goal
accomplished by Apollo 11, and Apollo 12 demonstrating that the astronauts could
perform a precision landing, mission planners were able to focus on more than just
landing safely and having astronauts minimally trained in geology gather lunar
samples to take home to Earth. There was a greater role for science on Apollo 13,
especially for geology, something emphasized by the mission's motto, Ex luna,
scientia (From the Moon, knowledge).[20]

Astronauts and key Mission Control

personnel

Swigert, Lovell and Haise the day before launch

Position Astronaut

James A. Lovell Jr.

Commander (CDR) Fourth and last
spaceflight

John "Jack" L. Swigert Jr.

Command Module Pilot (CMP)
Only spaceflight

Fred W. Haise Jr.

Lunar Module Pilot (LMP)
Only spaceflight

Apollo 13's mission commander, Jim Lovell, was 42 years old at the time of the
spaceflight. He was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and had been a
naval aviator and test pilot before being selected for the second group of
astronauts in 1962; he flew with Frank Borman in Gemini 7 in 1965 and Buzz Aldrin
in Gemini 12 the following year before flying in Apollo 8 in 1968, the first spacecraft to
orbit the Moon.[21] At the time of Apollo 13, Lovell was the NASA astronaut with the
most time in space, with 572 hours over the three missions.[22]

Jack Swigert, the command module pilot (CMP), was 38 years old and held a B.S. in
mechanical engineering and an M.S. in aerospace science; he had served in the Air
Force and in state Air National Guards and was an engineering test pilot before being
selected for the fifth group of astronauts in 1966.[23] Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot
(LMP), was 35 years old. He held a B.S. in aeronautical engineering, had been
a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and was a civilian research pilot for NASA when he was
selected as a Group 5 astronaut.[24][25]
According to the standard Apollo crew rotation, the prime crew for Apollo 13 would
have been the backup crew[note 3] for Apollo 10, with Mercury and Gemini
veteran Gordon Cooper in command, Donn F. Eisele as CMP and Edgar Mitchell as
LMP. Deke Slayton, NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, never intended to
rotate Cooper and Eisele to a prime crew assignment, as both were out of favor –
Cooper for his lax attitude towards training, and Eisele for incidents
aboard Apollo 7 and an extramarital affair. He assigned them to the backup crew
because no other veteran astronauts were available.[28] Slayton's original choices for
Apollo 13 were Alan Shepard as commander, Stuart Roosa as CMP, and Mitchell as
LMP. However, management felt Shepard needed more training time, as he had only
recently resumed active status after surgery for an inner ear disorder and had not
flown since 1961. Thus, Lovell's crew (himself, Haise and Ken Mattingly), having all
backed up Apollo 11 and being slated for Apollo 14, was swapped with Shepard's.[28]

Swigert was originally CMP of Apollo 13's backup crew, with John Young as
commander and Charles Duke as lunar module pilot.[29] Seven days before launch,
Duke contracted rubella from his son's friend.[30] This exposed both the prime and
backup crews, who trained together. Of the five, only Mattingly was not immune
through prior exposure. Normally, if any member of the prime crew had to be
grounded, the remaining crew would be replaced as well, and the backup crew
substituted, but Duke's illness ruled this out,[31] so two days before launch, Mattingly
was replaced by Swigert.[23] Mattingly never developed rubella and later flew on Apollo
16.[32]

For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts, known as the support crew, was designated in
addition to the prime and backup crews used on projects Mercury and Gemini.
Slayton created the support crews because James McDivitt, who would
command Apollo 9, believed that, with preparation going on in facilities across the
US, meetings that needed a member of the flight crew would be missed. Support
crew members were to assist as directed by the mission commander.[33] Usually low in
seniority, they assembled the mission's rules, flight plan, and checklists, and kept
them updated;[34][35] for Apollo 13, they were Vance D. Brand, Jack Lousma and
either William Pogue or Joseph Kerwin.[note 4][40]

For Apollo 13, flight directors were Gene Kranz, White team[41] (the lead flight
director);[42][43] Glynn Lunney, Black team; Milton Windler, Maroon team and Gerry
Griffin, Gold team.[41] The CAPCOMs (the person in Mission Control, during the Apollo
program an astronaut, who was responsible for voice communications with the crew)
[44]
for Apollo 13 were Kerwin, Brand, Lousma, Young and Mattingly.