New Netflix Documentary Revisits NASA’s Most Dangerous Mission
On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 launched from Kennedy Space Center with an objective of becoming just the third Apollo space program manned spacecraft to land on the moon. However, after a chain reaction of unforeseen incidents caused by an explosion aboard the spacecraft, the crew was forced to abandon the scheduled mission and instead orbited the Moon before safely returning to Earth. On September 5, Netflix will release Apollo 13: Survival, a documentary from filmmaker Peter Middleton, that will retell the events leading up to the near disaster and detail just how the crew members on the ill-fated spacecraft managed to survive.
Take a look at the trailer to get hyped:
On August 19, Netflix dropped its trailer on YouTube for Apollo 13: Survival, which will offer compelling insight into the mission’s crew members and take a peek behind the curtain at NASA as the Apollo space program ground control attempted to work with their crew members hundreds of thousands of miles away from them. Throughout the trailer, short clips of news reports regarding Apollo 13 help paint the picture of a mission draped in anxiety and uncertainty. With a broken line of communication from the crew and a “do or die” mentality hanging over the mission, Apollo 13: Survival documents just how high the stakes were and how close America was to witnessing a space program disaster.
After approaching the 56th hour of the Apollo 13 mission, one oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft exploded, leading to the failure of a second oxygen tank.
As one of the most infamous missions in the history of space exploration, Apollo 13 was very nearly a catastrophe that could have possibly set NASA back several years. “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” American astronaut John Swigert’s iconic quote, has become synonymous with the Apollo 13 crew’s brush with death. But thanks to some quick thinking and ingenuity, the crew managed to make improvised changes to the lunar module, ensuring their safety until they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Apollo 13: Survival will retell the events leading up to the near disaster and detail just how the crew members on the ill-fated spacecraft managed to survive.
In July 1969, the world looked on in awe when crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 became the first humans in history to touch foot on the Moon. Just a few months later, the crew aboard Apollo 12 safely landed on the Moon in November 1969, leading the way for the crew members to become the second group of humans to walk on the Moon. Half a year later, NASA hoped for Apollo 13 to become its third consecutive Moon landing mission.
Following its successful launch from Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 13 was scheduled to land on the Moon after a few days of space travel and land in the Fra Mauro area, a location named for the famous Italian geographer. As stated in the Apollo 13: Survival trailer, once on the Moon, the crew aboard the Apollo 13 were tasked with collecting samples and researching the surrounding area of the Moon in the hopes of learning about its origin. However, after approaching the 56th hour of the Apollo 13 mission, one oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft exploded, leading to the failure of a second oxygen tank.
Apollo 13: Survival documents just how high the stakes were and how close America was to witnessing a space program disaster.
With just minutes to attempt to remedy the situation, the Apollo 13 crew members sprung into action and improvised a solution to prevent the catastrophic failure of the spacecraft. You can watch how the events unfolded when Apollo 13: Survival drops on Netflix on September 5.
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