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Lot 328
[Apollo 13] CRIPPLED SPACECRAFT AND LOST MOON FROM DEEP SPACE Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11-17 April 1970
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €256 inc. premium
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[Apollo 13] CRIPPLED SPACECRAFT AND LOST MOON FROM DEEP SPACE
Jack Swigert or Fred Haise, 11-17 April 1970
Printed 1970.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS13-59-8523].
Numbered "NASA AS13-59-8523" in black in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas).
25.4 x 20.3 cm. (10 x 8 in.)
Historical context
Apollo 13's crippled Service Module—a shocking sight in deep space (see mission transcript).
This extremely rare, unreleased photograph from Apollo 13's near-disastrous journey captures a haunting view of the crippled Service Module, adrift in deep space with the distant Moon in the background. The image was taken from the lifeboat LM Aquarius with the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera, using a 60mm lens and black-and-white magazine 59/R, following the jettison of the Service Module just hours before reentry.
Due to the explosion of an oxygen tank en route to the Moon, Apollo 13 became the only mission to bring back photographs of a Service Module in space.
The crew had relied on this module for propulsion and life support, but an entire panel had been blown away, leaving twisted wreckage exposed to space. The catastrophic failure occurred at T+055:55:20 after launch, while James Lovell and Fred Haise were inside LM Aquarius, conducting routine checks and sending a live TV broadcast back to Earth. Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, marking the beginning of a desperate struggle for survival.
For four tense days, Apollo 13 became the most carefully watched mission in spaceflight history. Flight procedures were completely rewritten in real-time, and no one knew if the crew would make it back safely.
"Four hours before landing, we shed the Service Module; Mission Control had insisted on retaining it until then because everyone feared what the cold of space might do to the unsheltered CM heat shield. I'm glad we weren't able to see the SM earlier. With one whole panel missing, and wreckage hanging out, it was a sorry mess as it drifted away."
— James Lovell (NASA SP-350, p. 13.5)
Printed 1970.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image AS13-59-8523].
Numbered "NASA AS13-59-8523" in black in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas).
25.4 x 20.3 cm. (10 x 8 in.)
Historical context
Apollo 13's crippled Service Module—a shocking sight in deep space (see mission transcript).
This extremely rare, unreleased photograph from Apollo 13's near-disastrous journey captures a haunting view of the crippled Service Module, adrift in deep space with the distant Moon in the background. The image was taken from the lifeboat LM Aquarius with the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera, using a 60mm lens and black-and-white magazine 59/R, following the jettison of the Service Module just hours before reentry.
Due to the explosion of an oxygen tank en route to the Moon, Apollo 13 became the only mission to bring back photographs of a Service Module in space.
The crew had relied on this module for propulsion and life support, but an entire panel had been blown away, leaving twisted wreckage exposed to space. The catastrophic failure occurred at T+055:55:20 after launch, while James Lovell and Fred Haise were inside LM Aquarius, conducting routine checks and sending a live TV broadcast back to Earth. Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, marking the beginning of a desperate struggle for survival.
For four tense days, Apollo 13 became the most carefully watched mission in spaceflight history. Flight procedures were completely rewritten in real-time, and no one knew if the crew would make it back safely.
"Four hours before landing, we shed the Service Module; Mission Control had insisted on retaining it until then because everyone feared what the cold of space might do to the unsheltered CM heat shield. I'm glad we weren't able to see the SM earlier. With one whole panel missing, and wreckage hanging out, it was a sorry mess as it drifted away."
— James Lovell (NASA SP-350, p. 13.5)
Footnotes
From the mission transcript when the photographs were taken:
138:06:50 Lovell: All right. She's drifting right down in front of our windows now, Houston.
138:06:55 Kerwin (Mission Control): Okay.
138:08:12 Haise: Okay, Joe, I'm now looking down the SPS bell, and it looks—looks okay on the inside; maybe it is just a streak.
138:08:19 Joe Kerwin: Okay. Copy that, Fred. Was the bell deformed on the outside or just nicked or what?
138:08:33 Jim Lovell: I think the explosion, from what I could see, Joe, had—had stained it. I don't know whether it did any actual deformation or not.
138:08:41 Kerwin: Okay.
138:09:09: Haise: Man, that's unbelievable!