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It's the evening of April 13th, 1970, 200,000 miles from Earth and two days into Apollo 13's mission

to land on the Moon. Inside the spacecraft, Jack Swigert, the square-jawed astronaut from

Colorado, flows through zero gravity to the main control panel. The other two members of the crew,

lunar module pilot Fred Hayes and Commander Jim Lovell are busy packing away equipment.

But there's a routine task mission control wants Jack to complete. The spacecraft is equipped with

vital hydrogen and oxygen tanks that help power the systems on board and provide air for the

astronauts to breathe. But in the deep cold of space, these tanks require regular stirring,

so they're equipped with fans to turn up their contents. Now mission control wants Jack to turn

on one of these fans, so he reaches over to a panel and flicks the necessary switches.

Then Jack waits a few moments for the fans to do their work before switching them off again.

But then, from somewhere behind him in the spacecraft, Jack hears a loud dull thump.

The spacecraft shutters and Jack lances back at his commander Jim Lovell. They both had the same

thought. This must be a joke, and stare daggers at the third crewman Fred, who's been playing

tricks on them ever since they left Earth's orbit. But Fred looks back nervously. Whatever the

noise was, he had nothing to do with it. Then the master alarm goes off, warning that something

serious is wrong with the spacecraft. As the other two astronauts hurry to the control panel,

Jack's eyes flash across the gauges and dials in front of him. His face pales when he sees

the command module as losing power and spinning off course. Keeping his voice calm, he radios

mission control. Around them the spacecraft creaks and twists. Grabbing the thruster controls,

...