It was the 11th of April 1970 when the Apollo 13 mission lifted off to great fanfare. No one on the ground or in the craft could have predicted the near disaster that lay ahead for the spacecraft. At that time, veteran astronaut James Lovell was commanding a skilled and experienced crew and the team was heading to the moon. The Apollo 13 mission was meant to be the third ever human lunar landing, following the previous successful chapters of the Apollo project.

OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch Co-Axial Master Chronometer 42mm

OMEGA and NASA
The crew also consisted of Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot, Fred Haise and all three astronauts were strapped with the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional chronograph on their wrists. The watch had already been an essential part of NASA&rsquo;s official kit for all manned missions since 1965.
James Ragan, the NASA engineer who first tested and qualified the OMEGA Speedmaster in 1964 said, &ldquo;The watch was a critical backup. If the astronauts ever lost the capability of talking to the ground, or the capability of their digital timers, the only thing they would have to rely on would be the watches on always their wrists. It needed to be there for them if they had a problem.&rdquo;

Courtesy of NASA: Astronaut James Lovell at his position in the Lunar Module

Courtesy of NASA: View of damaged Apollo 13 Service Module

Split second excitement
As they say, what may go wrong, will go wrong. It was indeed fate that a major problem occurred for the Apollo 13 just two days after launch. An oxygen tank had exploded on the craft and this put the ship and its crew in a dire situation for the explosion crippled the Service Module. At this point, there was no way that the moon mission could continue and priorities instead shifted to just getting everyone back home on Earth safely.
Upon assessment of the situation, Houston directed the astronauts to move into the Lunar Module. However, the craft was clearly not made to support so many people for an extended period. To conserve energy, the crew had to shut down nearly all power and this meant that the digital timers on board could not function. Meanwhile, the crew had to endure near darkness and the bitter cold of space.
Over the course of the next few days, the Apollo 13 continued facing several serious situations and NASA had to monitor the situations in order to provide the necessary workarounds. Nevertheless, it was at the final hurdle that OMEGA&rsquo;s role came into play and the watch&rsquo;s precision in timing was called forth. The mission had already drifted off course by about 60 to 80 nautical miles and this meant that the module would re-enter the Earth&rsquo;s atmosphere at the wrong angle. If the Apollo13 had attempted re-entry at this angle, it would potentially bounce back into space with no chance of recovery.

Course correction
14 seconds of sheer determination and perfect coordination. Fourteen seconds of a burst of fuel burn was needed to manually correct the course of the craft. And yes, no error could be tolerated. Without any digital tools, astronaut Swigert had to depend on his OMEGA Speedmaster chronograph to accurately time the burn. And he had to do this in perfect coordination with Lovell who was tasked to pilot the craft using just the Earth&rsquo;s horizon as a guide. Commander James Lovell said, &ldquo;We used the OMEGA watch that Jack had on his wrist and I had to control the spacecraft. Jack timed the burn on the engine to make that correction to get us back home safely.&rdquo;
Thankfully, this difficult and unique manoeuvre was executed to perfection &ndash; on the 17th of April, 142 hours and 54 minutes after launch, the Apollo 13 managed to splash down safely in the South Pacific Ocean. And this was truly with thanks to the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional.
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The Silver Snoopy Award
The famous icon, Snoopy, was chosen as NASA&rsquo;s unofficial mascot thanks to his ability to &lsquo;keep things light in serious situations&rsquo;. He was a symbol of mission success and acted as a &ldquo;watchdog&rdquo; for NASA&rsquo;s space flight exercises.
To reward OMEGA for its life-saving contributions in the success of human space flight missions, NASA presented OMEGA with its prized &ldquo;Silver Snoopy Award&rdquo; on the 5th of October 1970. Today, the famous sterling silver lapel pin is a prized reminder of OMEGA&rsquo;s indelible history in space exploration and the crucial role the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional chronograph played in the &ldquo;successful failure&rdquo; of Apollo 13.

OMEGA's ambassadors commemorate the anniversary of the space mission this year with the following series of 14-second videos on the Speedmaster&rsquo;s role in the safe return of Apollo 13.

Our Apollo 13 story in 14 seconds​

Visit <a href="https://www.omegawatches.com">www.omegawatches.com</a> for more information.&nbsp;

OMEGA celebrates the Apollo 13 mission anniversary

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