g only one on line, and this one was showing signs of failing.Houston instructed the crew to power down the ship as soon as possible until the trouble could be analyzed. In the meantime, the ship had began to pitch and roll from the venting gas.When it was fully recognized, about 10:20 p.m. CST, on the 13th, Apollo 13 was 180,521 nautical miles from Earth, more then halfway to the Moon. The ship had suffered a terrible accident, the blowout of a liquid oxygen tank in the service module behind the command module. Because of this, it had lost most of its electric power. It was hopelessly crippled.This meant that the crew would have to use the electric power and life support system in the lunar module, now their lifeboat, to return to Earth. "It was an unpleasant trip home; the lunar module temperature was on t a few degrees above freezing and water was rationed to just six ounces per person, per day." Originally designed to sustain 2 people for 45 hours, but by carefully conserving both power and air, three astronauts survived for over 95 hours. There was still some power from oxygen tank No. 1 supplying one fuel cell, but that tank was leaking, apparently damaged by the blowout of tank No. 2, and the power was fading. Only the command module storage batteries were left in Apollo, and these would have to be used for reentry into Earth atmosphere. The lunar module was now the crew's only salvation.As the crew began moving into the Aquarius and shutting down the command module, navigators at Mission Control computed a new course that would swing the ship around the Moon and bring it back to Earth. At 2:43 a.m. CST, April 14th the crew made the first course correction. They had to fire the Lunar Modules engines for 30.7 seconds. This would increase the velocity 38 feet per second, which put the ship in a free return trajectory that would intersect the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa in 90 hours and 30 minutes. That meant...
