Incredible lunar views from Apollo 13

 Incredible lunar views from Apollo 13 Today’s Video of the Day from NASA features an incredible view of what the Apollo 13 astronauts saw as they flew around the far side of the Moon. 

The stunning lunar surface views are made available with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Apollo 13 was to be the third lunar landing attempt, but the mission was aborted after rupture of service module oxygen tank. Still, it was classified as a “successful failure” because of the experience gained in rescuing the crew. The mission’s spent upper stage successfully impacted the moon.

During the first two days, the crew ran into a couple of minor surprises, but generally Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the program. At 46 hours, 43 minutes Joe Kerwin, the capsule communicator, or Capcom, on duty, said, “The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We’re bored to tears down here.” It was the last time anyone would mention boredom for a long time. Incredible lunar views from Apollo 13 as shown above in the video shows the amazing views and lunar sides of the moon at the perfect angles. The command module’s normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: NASA