APOLLO 13

On the evening of 25 March 1970, the Saturn V that would soon carry Apollo 13 to the Moon cast a long shadow across launch pad 39A. Security guard Earl Paige was sitting in his car, about to drive off but as he turned the key, his car suddenly burst into flames.

The engine’s heat had ignited a cloud of oxygen dumped from the Saturn V’s fuel tanks. Paige was pulled from the fire unharmed, but this wasn’t the last time an oxygen tank would cause problems for the ill-omened Apollo 13.

During pre-flight briefings, commander Jim Lovell waved off concerns that a mission numbered ‘unlucky 13’ was destined to suffer misfortune – to his Italian forefathers, 13 was an auspicious number.

But the press was desperate for a new angle on the Apollo missions, which the public were already growing tired of.

The press got their dose of bad luck for the mission a few weeks before launch. Lovell’s son had German measles, as did back-up lunar module pilot Charles

Duke. An astronaut getting sick at the Moon would be a disaster, so NASA tested the crew to see who was immune. Lovell