Was Apollo 13 A Successful Failure?

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Did you know that the spacecraft Apollo 13 was documented as a successful failure? On Apollo 13, 3 astronauts were preparing to collect samples of rocks and sand from the moon. There names were Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. When Mission Control in Houston, Texas, asked the astronauts when they were preparing to land on the moon, to perform a practice task. With a flip of a switch, the job was done. Then, a couple seconds later, there was a loud BANG! The side of Apollo 13 had blown up! Well, at least that is what happened according to the Scope article, Disaster in Space by Lauren Tarshis. The astronauts had to turn their ship around and survive for 4 more days in the cold heart of space. With the guide of Mission Control, and the astronauts creativity, the crew was able to make it down to earth safely. Apollo 13 was a successful failure. …show more content…
Well, in this case, the success was that the astronauts retuned home safely, and the failure was that they didn’t make it to the moon. So, it was a successful failure. In the article Apollo 13 shares surprises from their ‘Successful Failure Mission by Andrew Chaikin, it states, “To mark the flight’s four decades, author Andrew Chaikin shared with collectSPACE.com to the crew’s insights of their “successful failure.” It also goes on to talk about how commander Jim Lovell agrees with the “successful failure” of Apollo 13. Jim Lovell was an astronaut on Apollo 13. He agreed that Apollo 13 was a “successful failure," and her was actually there on Apollo