THE HISTORY / APOLLO 13
The near-disaster some say was staged.
RECORD / AT A GLANCE
FALSE
The explosion was traced to damaged heater switches inside oxygen tank 2. The claim that Apollo 13 was staged for publicity has no support.
THE EVENTS / THE CLAIM / THE RECORD
11 April 1970
Apollo 13 lifts off for the Fra Mauro highlands.
13 April 1970, 9:08 p.m. CST
An oxygen tank bursts 55 hours 55 minutes into the flight, minutes after a TV broadcast.
17 April 1970
The crew lands safely in the Pacific.
June 1970
The board traces the explosion to heater switches never upgraded for a higher voltage.
April 2026
Artemis II passes the distance record Apollo 13 set in 1970.
READ THE FILE
Interest was falling. A drama would win it back.
A wiring fault with a long paper trail.
Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE
2 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.
It held until Artemis II in April 2026.
Who says it: NASA.
A damaged oxygen tank exploded; NASA’s review found the cause.
Who says it: Hoax sites.
OPEN THE RECORD
Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.
NASA mission page. Describes the mission as one many viewed as “routine.”
NASA History article on the oxygen tank explosion at 55 hours 55 minutes.
Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.
NASA release on the splashdown and the 252,756-mile record.
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Interest was falling. A drama would win it back.
By April 1970 the public was losing interest. NASA itself describes the mission as one many viewed as “routine” until the accident. [1] The crew had just finished a TV broadcast when the tank exploded, and the drama that followed held the world’s attention for four days. [2]
If you wanted to revive support for an expensive program, the theory goes, a survivable near-disaster would be ideal.
NASA mission page. Describes the mission as one many viewed as “routine.”
NASA History article on the oxygen tank explosion at 55 hours 55 minutes.
A wiring fault with a long paper trail.
The review board traced the explosion to changes made years earlier. In 1965 the allowed voltage for the tank heaters was raised from 28 to 65 volts, but the thermostatic switches were not upgraded. During a pad test the heaters ran for hours, reached about 1,000 °F and damaged the Teflon insulation on the wires. In flight, a routine stir of the tank set off the fire. [1]
Telemetry, voice loops and the crew’s photographs of the damaged service module all match. NASA redesigned the tanks, and Apollo 14 did not fly until January 1971. [1][2]
Staging a crisis would have meant faking an engineering failure and then fixing a problem that did not exist. The record shows the opposite: an embarrassing design flaw that NASA documented in public. In April 2026 the Artemis II crew finally broke the distance record that Apollo 13 set by accident. [3]
Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.
NASA History article on the oxygen tank explosion at 55 hours 55 minutes.
NASA release on the splashdown and the 252,756-mile record.
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