Artifact: Eugene Kranz signed doodle and inscription.
Dimensions: 15.7 x 23.3 cm.

Description: It includes the inscription which says: "I was always drawing airplanes as a kid. Somehow they all turned out to look like this one." Signed by Eugene Kranz and with "Apollo 13" below.

Item: Apollo 13 Lunar Module Aquarius flown stowage assembly netting and piece of beta cloth
Size: stowage assembly netting (4 x 3 x 3.5 cm aprox.), beta cloth (3 x 2.3 x 2.4 cm). Container size: 4.5 cm, each.

Description:

This segments of netting and Beta cloth material were part of Lunar Module Aquarius and went around the Moon on the flight of Apollo 13 during April 11 to 17, 1970. The segments were cut from an Interim Stowage Assembly that was removed from Aquarius prior to LM jettison just before the reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Aft stowage assembly netting of Apollo 16. The piece of beta cloth and netting from Apollo 13 in my collection comes from this area of the Lunar Module. Credit: NASA/Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

After the return to Earth, James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise presented segments of this netting material as a thank-you to key support personel. Fred Haise still had some of this material that he later offered as a means of raising funds to support the Infinity Science Center.

Obtained through The Space Collective.

Artifact: Apollo 13 mission patch.
Manufacturer: AB Emblem.
Dimensions: 4" / 101mm.
Program: Apollo.
Flown Status: unflown.

Description:

Apollo 13 AB Emblem patch. This patch is very different to the design worn by the crew, with multi-colored horses and no craters on the lunar surface. It exists in two main variants, one embroidered on a black velvety background (as the one I have) and the other on black twill. The velvet version appears to be slightly more common than the twill version.

Apollo 13:

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission of NASA's Apollo program, originally intended to be the third mission to land astronauts on the Moon. Launched on April 11, 1970, it encountered a critical failure that transformed the mission into a dramatic story of survival in space.

The crew of Apollo 13 included astronauts James A. Lovell Jr., John L. Swigert Jr., and Fred W. Haise Jr. Approximately 56 hours into the mission, while en route to the Moon, an oxygen tank in the service module exploded, causing a catastrophic failure.

The explosion severely damaged the service module, depriving the Command Module, named "Odyssey," of crucial life-support systems and power. The lunar landing was immediately aborted, and the focus shifted to getting the crew safely back to Earth.

Working together with mission control, the crew improvised solutions to stabilize the spacecraft and conserve resources, such as oxygen and power. They used the Lunar Module, named "Aquarius," originally intended for lunar landing, as a "lifeboat" to sustain them during the return journey.

Through remarkable ingenuity and teamwork, the crew managed to navigate a critical course correction using the Lunar Module's descent engine and successfully reentered Earth's atmosphere. Despite the tremendous challenges, Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970.

More information:

Crew Patch Reference Guide: Apollo 13

Item: Apollo 13 flown Lunar Module strap
Size: 2 x 2.3 cm.
Manufacturer: Grumman / Presentation: The Right Stuff Inc.

Description: Apollo 13, America'S third lunar landing mission, was aborted due to an oxygen tank explosion aboard "Odyssey's" Service Module more than 200,000 miles from earth on its outbound journey. This caused the spacecraft to lose its electrical power, oxygen, and water supplies. Astronauts James A- Lovell Jr., Fred W. Haise, and John L. Swigert, Jr. were forced to use the Lunar Module Aquarius as a lifeboat for the 500,000 mile voyage back to earth. After a slingshot maneuver around the Moon, the crew returned safely to earth when their Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970.

This section of braided cloth strap is a portion of the webbing from the Lunar Module Aquarius. It was salvaged by the crew of Apollo 13 prior jettisoning of the LM. The webbing was cut into small pieces and presented to members of the support teams that helped the crew return home safely.

There were a few of these straps given to the Apollo support teams. The fratment in my collection comes from this braided strap.

The affixed portion of braided cloth strap was actually flown in the Apollo 13 Lunar Module Aquarius. It was gifted to NASA Production Control Engineer William R. Whipkey, who had it in his possession until he sold it to Sandy Clarkson from The Right Stuff Inc.

It comes with a copy of the COA signed by W. R. Whipkey.

Item: Apollo 13 flown Command Module film on Fred Haise signed cover
Size: Size: 16.2 x 9. 2 cm.

Description:

A piece of film on the front and back of the cover and signed by Fred Haise on the cover. The inscription on the front reads: "Splashdown - Crew recover.

April 17, 1970 - After jettison on the LM "lifeboat" and the damaged Service Module, the Apollo 13 crew returned safely to Earth as their Command Ship Odyssey splashed down less than 4 miles from the awaiting recovery ship, USS Iwo Jima, in the South Pacific Ocean. The splashdown was perfect and once on board the carrier deck, astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert, looked tired but happy. The curtain was brought down on the most harried and critical flight emergency of the entire NASA manned space program. Never in recorded history was a journey of such peril been watched and waited-out by almost the entire human race."

On the back of the cover says:

"Flown film

This is a piece of 70 mm Apollo 13 film fom a roll of processed film. The film was salvaged by Dick Underwood, NASA Supervisory Aerospace Technologist, who was ran the developing machines at NASA for ll returning flights."

"Also a piece of Apollo 13 flown film on the front of this cover"

Signed by Sandy Clarkson, The Right Stuff Space

Apollo 13 flown film

This film segment on the postal cover is from the Dick Underwood collection.

Apollo 13 carried 4 Hasselblad 70mm cameras. Only 2 of the cameras were used taking a total of 584 exposures. The exposures were captured on 5 magazines; 95 on B&W film and 489 on color film.

Because of the oxigen tank explosion in the Service Module the focus of the mission changed from the third lunar landing to bringing the crippled ship and crew home safely. The cameras played a critical role in capturing the photos of the LM's Lithium Hydroxide Canister as "fixed" by Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert. Photos of the Service Module as it was released from the Command Module allowed a detailed analysis of the damage caused by the explosion. As Fred Haise has stated "The damage looked much worse than expected".

The film leaders and tails that Dick UNderwood salvaged 50 years ago were recently rediscovered. Thankfully film from several missions were each packaged separately. And we are fortunate Underwood not only saved the film remnants but also documented exactly which mission each leader and tail came from.

For Apollo 13 the photo below is one section of film today. This film is from Underwood's Apollo 13 envelope containing all flown laders and tails, but no magazine identification is indicated. One of the Apollo 13 film magazines used by the crew contained 6 images that NASA determined were unusuable (AS-13-9040 to AS13-63-9045). This film magazine was unnamed. The small piece of film affixed to this envelope is flown and is from the unnamed magazine.

As can be seen due to age and poor storage conditions portions of the film are different colores. The film leader/tail have plastic extensions tapped to the end of the film. These extensions were added as means to feed the film into the processing machine used to develop the film rolls. For this project, as seen in the photograph, the grey plastic extensions have been separated from the actual film.

Item: Fred Haise signed spacesuit glossy photo
Size: 21 x 29.2 cm.

Description: Fred Wallace Haise Jr. (born November 14, 1933) is an American former NASA astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force, and a test pilot. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, having flown as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 13. He was to have been the sixth person to walk on the Moon, but the Apollo 13 landing mission was aborted en route.

Haise went on to fly five Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests in 1977, and retired from NASA in 1979.

Item: Apollo 13 Lunar Surface Exploration Map
Size: 20.9x26.8 cm.

Status: Unflown.

Description: This page comes from the Lunar Surface Exploration Map Data Package (s/n SKB 32100082-371), and it's signed by igned by Fred Haise with inscription: "Used for traverse familiarization - Fred Haise - Apollo 13 LMP".

These maps were used to familiarize and train Jim Lovell and Fred Haise with all the details of the Fra Mauro region including their planned EVA routes.

The maps were assembled by the U.S. Geological Survey team responsible for developing detailed maps for the lunar landings. When Fra Mauro was designated as the A-13 landing site this map package as assembled using lunar photographs from the previous four Apollo missions as well as from several unmanned satellite mapping missions. The goal was to provide accurate topographic relief, identify potential landing sites, and identify specific landmarks along the approach path of the Lunar Module.

While the Apollo 13 landing was aborted to an on-board explosion the same maps were used to train the Apollo 14 crew who landed safely and explored Fra Mauro in February 1971.