At 5 1/2 minutes after liftoff, John Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell felt a little vibration. Then the center engine of the S-II stage shut down two minutes early. This caused the remaining four engines to burn 34 seconds longer than planned, and the S-IVB third stage had to burn nine seconds longer to put Apollo 13 in orbit.
At 55 hours, 46 minutes, as the crew finished a 49-minute TV broadcast showing how comfortably they lived and worked in weightlessness, Lovell said, "This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody there a nice evening, and we're just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Good night."
Nine minutes later, oxygen tank No. 2 blew up, causing the No. 1 tank to also fail. The command module's normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth.

It is still relevant today because there is always talk going on within the government about funding NASA and on going space exploration. There is still so much stuff we don't know about space or the bottoms of our oceans. So on going missions and experiments are important so we can continue to learn more new things. But it is constantly talked about cutting funding or refunding NASA for their on going missions and plans.

 

Several attempts were then made to save the remaining oxygen in oxygen tank 1, but the pressure continued to decrease. It was obvious by about 90 minutes after the accident that the oxygen tank 1 leak could not be stopped and that shortly it would be necessary to use the LM as a “lifeboat” for the remainder of the mission. The resultant loss of oxygen made the three fuel cells inoperative. This left the CM batteries, normally used only during reentry, as the sole power source. The only oxygen left was contained in a surge tank and repressurization packages used to repressurize the CM after cabin venting. The LM became the only source of sufficient electrical power and oxygen to permit a safe return to Earth, and led to the decision to abort the Apollo 13 mission. By 058:40, the LM had been activated, the inertial guidance reference transferred from the CSM guidance system to the LM guidance system, and the CSM systems were turned off.

KEY MESSAGE: The situation on Apollo 13 was ideal from very early on in the mission. But when they realized the quick decrease in one oxygen tank and that the other one failed. They knew their situation just got that much worse. Getting back to Earth quickly became the priority to promise their survival.

Intended as the third lunar landing mission, Apollo 13 had a full roster of activities scheduled in addition to lunar surface activities (experiments, sampling, etc.) and photography. After the accident, virtually all activities were related to returning quickly and safely to Earth.

KEY MESSAGE: Things in life don't always go according to plan. Even these space missions didn't go according to plan. Apollo 13 had many activities it was supposed to do while it was in space but because of the unforeseen difficulties that happened with the accidents on board. These events and activities never happened because the new mission was to get them back to Earth quickly and safely.