Dominique Ciccolella
Sale Coordinator and Expert Liaison
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![[Apollo 13] "HOUSTON, WE'VE HAD A PROBLEM": the damaged Service Module in the aftermath of disaster Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, or James Lovell, 11-17 April 1970 image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F24%2F25639331-305-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![[Apollo 13] "HOUSTON, WE'VE HAD A PROBLEM": the damaged Service Module in the aftermath of disaster Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, or James Lovell, 11-17 April 1970 image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F24%2F25639331-305-3.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![[Apollo 13] "HOUSTON, WE'VE HAD A PROBLEM": the damaged Service Module in the aftermath of disaster Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, or James Lovell, 11-17 April 1970 image 3](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2025-03%2F24%2F25639331-305-2.jpeg&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 322
[Apollo 13] "HOUSTON, WE'VE HAD A PROBLEM": the damaged Service Module in the aftermath of disaster Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, or James Lovell, 11-17 April 1970
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €832 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Post-War and Contemporary Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Sabine Cornette de Saint Cyr
Head of Department
Chloe Mayot
Senior Cataloguer
Marion Richard
Specialist
[Apollo 13] "HOUSTON, WE'VE HAD A PROBLEM": the damaged Service Module in the aftermath of disaster
Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, or James Lovell, 11-17 April 1970
Printed 1970.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS13-58-8458].
Numbered "NASA AS13-58-8458" in red in the top margin, with NASA caption and "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.).
Historical context
This haunting image, taken with the Hasselblad 500 EL equipped with the 250mm telephoto lens, captures the damaged Apollo 13 Service Module after jettison, just hours before Earth re-entry. The destruction visible in this photograph is the result of the oxygen tank explosion that occurred at T+055:55:20 after launch, when the spacecraft was already 178,000 nautical miles from Earth on its way to the Moon, prompting the crew to radio the now-famous words to Mission Control: 'Houston, we've had a problem.' (See mission transcript.)
At the time of the explosion, James Lovell and Fred Haise had just entered the Lunar Module Aquarius to check its systems and were broadcasting a routine TV transmission to Earth. Suddenly, the crew heard a loud bang, and their critical life-supporting oxygen system began venting into space. The Service Module, which was meant to bring them home, had suffered a catastrophic failure. It was only after jettisoning the SM near Earth that they could see the full extent of the damage—an entire panel had been blown away.
For four agonizing days, the world watched as NASA engineers and the Apollo 13 crew worked against time to improvise solutions for survival and safe return. The mission would become one of the most carefully watched and heroic rescues in spaceflight history.
"I thought, when I saw that oxygen system leaking down, I figured we'd lost them. I really did. I didn't think we'd make it."
John Young, Apollo 13 backup crew member (from the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon).
Printed 1970.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS13-58-8458].
Numbered "NASA AS13-58-8458" in red in the top margin, with NASA caption and "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.).
Historical context
This haunting image, taken with the Hasselblad 500 EL equipped with the 250mm telephoto lens, captures the damaged Apollo 13 Service Module after jettison, just hours before Earth re-entry. The destruction visible in this photograph is the result of the oxygen tank explosion that occurred at T+055:55:20 after launch, when the spacecraft was already 178,000 nautical miles from Earth on its way to the Moon, prompting the crew to radio the now-famous words to Mission Control: 'Houston, we've had a problem.' (See mission transcript.)
At the time of the explosion, James Lovell and Fred Haise had just entered the Lunar Module Aquarius to check its systems and were broadcasting a routine TV transmission to Earth. Suddenly, the crew heard a loud bang, and their critical life-supporting oxygen system began venting into space. The Service Module, which was meant to bring them home, had suffered a catastrophic failure. It was only after jettisoning the SM near Earth that they could see the full extent of the damage—an entire panel had been blown away.
For four agonizing days, the world watched as NASA engineers and the Apollo 13 crew worked against time to improvise solutions for survival and safe return. The mission would become one of the most carefully watched and heroic rescues in spaceflight history.
"I thought, when I saw that oxygen system leaking down, I figured we'd lost them. I really did. I didn't think we'd make it."
John Young, Apollo 13 backup crew member (from the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon).
Footnotes
From the mission transcript just after the explosion of the damaged Service Module on the way to the Moon:
055:55:19 Swigert: Okay, Houston...
055:55:19 Lovell: ...Houston...
055:55:20 Swigert: I believe we've had a problem here. [Pause.]
055:55:28 Lousma (Mission Control): This is Houston. Say again, please.
055:55:35 Lovell: Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a Main B Bus Undervolt.
055:55:42 Lousma: Roger. Main B Undervolt. [Long pause.]
055:55:58 Lousma: Okay, stand by, 13. We're looking at it.
055:56:10 Haise: Okay. Right now, Houston, the voltage is - is looking good. And we had a pretty large bang associated with the Caution and Warning there. And as I recall, Main B was the one that had had an amp spike on it once before. [...]
056:09:07 Lovell: It looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something out into the - into space.
056:09:22 Lousma (Mission Control): Roger. We copy your venting.
056:09:29 Lovell: It's a gas of some sort.
Literature
LIFE, 1 May 1971, p.30 (variant)
Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (NASA SP-350), Cortright, ed., chapter 13.2, p. 252 (variant)
Watch more
CLICK HERE: HISTORIC NASA FILM APOLLO 13 "HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM" 34062