Editing Openai/67c4e193-e008-8008-8d82-c239519e3d5a (section)

==== Apollo 13 – Third Lunar Landing Attempt (Aborted) ====

Mission Data: Apollo 13 (April 1970) was intended to land at the Fra Mauro site, but an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon forced an abort and safe return using the Lunar Module as a “lifeboat.” This mission’s telemetry was absolutely crucial for the crew’s survival – every bit of engineering data (pressure readings, power levels, guidance information) was scrutinized in real time to solve the crisis. During and after the mission, NASA engineers poured over Apollo 13’s telemetry to understand the failure. The data was recorded on the usual 1-inch reels at tracking stations and in Mission Control’s data systems. Given Apollo 13’s anomalous events, one might think the tapes would be specially preserved. In practice, however, once the accident investigation concluded and the mission report was written, Apollo 13’s raw telemetry tapes fell into the same storage cycle as the others. They were sent to the archives and probably later pulled for reuse in the 1980s. There is no record of Apollo 13 telemetry tapes being spared; by the time of the 2006–09 searches, nothing from Apollo 13 surfaced in the archivesnasa.gov<ref>{{cite web|title=nasa.gov|url=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf#:~:text=searchers%20never%20found%20what%20they,Apollo%2011%20moon%20landing%20and|publisher=nasa.gov|access-date=2025-12-06}}</ref>. So it’s presumed that Apollo 13’s original telemetry reels were also erased or lost, along with those of most Apollo missions.

Post-mission Data Usage: Although the tapes are gone, Apollo 13’s data was not lost in a practical sense at the time. During the mission, key telemetry was printed out on strip charts and logs (especially around the time of the explosion on April 13, 1970). The Apollo 13 Review Board report includes plots and readouts derived from telemetry. For example, they used the recorded sensor data to pinpoint that a wiring fault caused the oxygen tank to rupture. All those findings were preserved in documentation. Thus, the content of the telemetry that mattered for Apollo 13’s analysis is available in reports, even though the actual tape media were later recycled. Apollo 13, like Apollo 11, also had no ALSEP deployed (since they never landed), so there are no surface experiment tapes to consider. However, Apollo 13’s Saturn V third stage did carry some instruments and a transmitter for a planned experiment (measuring S-IVB impact on the Moon via Apollo 12’s seismometer). That S-IVB impact telemetry would have been received and recorded – likely another tape that was stored and later discarded. The resulting data (the impact timing and seismic signal) were documented in scientific papers, not requiring the original tape anymore.

Audio and Film: Apollo 13 produced extensive recorded mission data in forms that were saved. Most famously, all the mission communications were recorded on analog tapes. In fact, Apollo 13’s crisis spurred interest in those recordings years later. In the late 2010s, as Apollo 13’s 50th anniversary neared, the same UT Dallas/NASA team that worked on Apollo 11’s audio turned to Apollo 13’s 30-track tapes. They digitized almost all Apollo 13 mission control audio (some 7,200 hours across multiple loops) and released it in April 2020 for the anniversaryengineering-research.utdallas.edu<ref>{{cite web|title=engineering-research.utdallas.edu|url=https://engineering-research.utdallas.edu/recovering-audio-from-the-apollo-moon-missions/#:~:text=Recovering%20Audio%20from%20the%20Apollo,tracks%20capture%20all%20communications|publisher=engineering-research.utdallas.edu|access-date=2025-12-06}}</ref>smpte.org<ref>{{cite web|title=smpte.org|url=https://www.smpte.org/section-events/soundscriber-recovery-apollo-mission-control-audio-recordings#:~:text=how%20the%20Apollo%2011%20audio,unique%2030%20channel%20master|publisher=smpte.org|access-date=2025-12-06}}</ref>. Now one can listen to every conversation among controllers and between Houston and the crew as Apollo 13 unfolded, thanks to those preserved tapes. The quality of the audio tapes was adequate and they were successfully read with the custom machinery (the SoundScriber and new 30-head system). So the condition of Apollo 13’s audio tapes was still good after 50 years. Alongside audio, Apollo 13 has preserved video/film records: even though they had no live TV after the accident (to conserve power, the crew did not do broadcasts), the launch and pre-crisis TV show (Apollo 13’s crew broadcast a short TV tour of the spacecraft about an hour before the explosion) was recorded and exists. Additionally, the crew’s onboard 16mm film footage (for example, of the damaged Service Module after separation) was recovered and is archived. These are accessible via NASA’s media resources.

Current Status: Telemetry Tapes: No original Apollo 13 telemetry tapes are cataloged as existing today (consistent with NASA’s findings for Apollo tapes broadly)nasa.gov<ref>{{cite web|title=nasa.gov|url=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/static/history/alsj/a11/Apollo_11_TV_Tapes_Report.pdf#:~:text=searchers%20never%20found%20what%20they,Apollo%2011%20moon%20landing%20and|publisher=nasa.gov|access-date=2025-12-06}}</ref>. If any Apollo 13 tape were miraculously found, it would be of great historical interest (e.g., the exact sensor readings at the moment of the explosion), but so far none has turned up outside the normal channels. It appears none ended up in private collections or museums. Given Apollo 13’s fame, if a tape had surfaced, it likely would have made news. The National Archives does hold Apollo 13 documentation, but not the raw data tapes themselves. Accessibility: Even without the tapes, Apollo 13 is one of the best-documented missions. The entire mission can be “replayed” via the Apollo 13 in Real Time website, which integrates all available data: audio (fully available), photographs, and transcripts. The lack of raw telemetry has not hindered analysis – engineers and historians have all the key numbers from printed records. Restoration: Aside from the audio digitization project (completed in 2020), there hasn’t been a need for other restoration on Apollo 13 data. There were no surface experiments to recover, and no missing video (the mission’s relevant video was already saved). In essence, Apollo 13’s data legacy is intact in qualitative terms, even if the original magnetic tape reels are gone. Researchers can examine Apollo 13 through its detailed mission report and the newly available audio archive, which provides insight into how telemetry was used in real-time to solve problems.