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[Apollo 13] LOST MOON IN DARKNESS: seen from the spacecraft struggling to return to Earth Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11–17 April 1970 image 1
[Apollo 13] LOST MOON IN DARKNESS: seen from the spacecraft struggling to return to Earth Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11–17 April 1970 image 2
Lot 324

[Apollo 13] LOST MOON IN DARKNESS: seen from the spacecraft struggling to return to Earth
Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11–17 April 1970

14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue Hoche

Sold for €281.60 inc. premium

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[Apollo 13] LOST MOON IN DARKNESS: seen from the spacecraft struggling to return to Earth

Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11–17 April 1970

Printed 1970.

Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA AS13-62-8938].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS13-62-8938" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).

20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)

Historical context
Apollo 13's Lost Moon—captured in the darkness of deep space.
While the Apollo 13 astronauts never set foot on the surface, they remain among the rare few who journeyed to the Moon and back.
After the Service Module explosion, the lunar landing was aborted, and the crew's photography plans were abandoned as survival became their priority. Following the slingshot around the Moon, which propelled them toward home, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise took it upon themselves to document their perilous voyage, capturing images without knowing if they would survive.

This haunting photograph of the receding Moon was taken while Apollo 13 was in "barbecue mode"—a slow rotation to regulate temperature. It was shot using the Hasselblad Lunar Surface Data Camera, equipped with a 60mm lens and colour magazine 62/JJ—a rare and poignant image from a mission that became an unplanned fight for survival in deep space.

Footnotes

"I never felt we were in a hopeless situation... No, we never had that emotion at all. We never were with our backs to the wall, where there were no more ideas, or nothing else to try, or no possible solution. That never came."
Fred Haise (Chaikin, Voices, pg. 139)

Watch more
CLICK HERE: Apollo 13 - 16-mm magazine 1208-GG

Additional information

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