Three men in a CSM named Odyssey...

[catsmate]

Today, though most people aren't aware of it, is the forty-seventh anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13 (wiki), at 19:13 UTC
the lunar mission that came close to disaster. 56 hours after launch (that's about 3AM on Saturday) an accident in the hydrogen/oxygen tanks for the fuel cells left the Service Module without electrical power.

Thanks to considerable human ingenuity the three men would arrive back on Earth alive and (mostly) well.

 

[Ranb]

I recommend reading Lovell's book Lost Moon (reprinted as Apollo 13). It makes Ron Howard's movie seem like a work of fiction.

Ranb

 

[CORed]

I recommend reading Lovell's book Lost Moon (reprinted as Apollo 13). It makes Ron Howard's movie seem like a work of fiction.

Ranb

There was also a very good Nova (PBS show) on Apollo 13. I imagine Lovell's book goes into more detail. I haven't read it.

ETA: Although I was alive during Apollo 13 and followed it, I don't think I realized until I watched the Nova episode I mentioned just how close it came to killing all three astronauts. The whole mission after the tank exploded was a masterpiece of improvisation with the stakes as high as they could be.

 

[Trebuchet]

I recall going to the film Marooned in my college town and hearing about the "problem" on leaving the theater. That was interesting.

 

[SpitfireIX]

I recommend reading Lovell's book Lost Moon (reprinted as Apollo 13). It makes Ron Howard's movie seem like a work of fiction.

Ranb

I read it shortly after I saw the movie; one of my roommates at the time had a copy. Reading the book didn't negatively impact my opinion of the movie the way that my reading The Hunt for Red October negatively impacted my opinion of that movie.

Our other roommate took his girlfriend to see it, and although he knew how it was going to end, she didn't. She kept asking him, "Are they going to live or die??" He told her to just keep watching.

When he told me about this, I said, "Obviously she didn't notice that the opening credits said "Based on the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell."

 

[Belz...]

Today, though most people aren't aware of it, is the forty-seventh anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13 (wiki), at 19:13 UTC
the lunar mission that came close to disaster. 56 hours after launch (that's about 3AM on Saturday) an accident in the hydrogen/oxygen tanks for the fuel cells left the Service Module without electrical power.

Thanks to considerable human ingenuity the three men would arrive back on Earth alive and (mostly) well.

Hey, that's my favourite movie.

 

[SpitfireIX]

There was also a very good Nova (PBS show) on Apollo 13. I imagine Lovell's book goes into more detail. I haven't read it.

ETA: Although I was alive during Apollo 13 and followed it, I don't think I realized until I watched the Nova episode I mentioned just how close it came to killing all three astronauts. The whole mission after the tank exploded was a masterpiece of improvisation with the stakes as high as they could be.

I was five years old. My mother told my younger brothers and me that the astronauts were in danger. I don't know about my brothers, but I'd been paying attention to a lot of TV specials about the moon missions, though I don't recall watching any actual launches, splashdowns, or EVAs. The first launch I actually remember watching was the first Skylab mission.

 

[SpitfireIX]

Today, though most people aren't aware of it, is the forty-seventh forty-eighth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13 (wiki), at 19:13 UTC
the lunar mission that came close to disaster.

FTFY

 

[Ranb]

The movie pared down the people involved to make the cast more manageable. Grumman really got the shaft by the way they were depicted. But I enjoyed the movie enough to se it more than once.

 

[SpitfireIX]

If I were going to a desert island with a portable Blu-ray player with solar charger, and I could only take 10 movies, Apollo 13 would be one of them. It used to be in my top five.