The Third Lunar Landing Attempt
Apollo 13
Real-Time Mission Experience
Thu Dec 07 1972
12:32:00 AM
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Transcript Mission Milestones Commentary
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Mission Control Channels
Photography Mission Control Audio Spacecraft Details
The Apollo 13 Spacecraft
APOLLO 13
IN REAL TIME
A real-time journey through the third lunar landing attempt.
This multimedia project consists entirely of original historical mission material
Relive the mission as it occurred in 1970
T-MINUS 1M
Join at 1 minute to launch
NOW
Join in-progress
Exactly 55 years ago
Thu Dec 07 1972
12:32:00 AM
Current time in 1970
Fullscreen
Fullscreen
(recommended)
Included real-time elements:
  • All mission control film footage
  • All on-board television and film footage
  • All Mission Control audio (7,200 hours)
  • 144 hours of space-to-ground audio
  • All on-board recorder audio
  • Press conferences as they happened
  • 600+ photographs
  • 12,900 searchable utterances
  • Post-mission commentary
  • Onboard view reconstructed using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data
Instructions / Credits
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A real-time journey through the Apollo 13 mission
Introduction

This website replays the Apollo 13 mission as it happened. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time--the master mission clock. Footage of Mission Control, film shot by the astronauts, and television broadcasts transmitted from space have been painstakingly placed to the very moments they were shot during the mission, as has every photograph taken, and every word spoken.

This project includes newly digitized and restored mission control audio. The last tapes of these recordings were discovered in the National Archives fall of 2019 and were digitized in February, 2020 and contain the time surrounding the onboard explosion. These recordings haven't been heard since the accident investigation in 1970.

Interface

Upon starting the application, select whether to begin one minute before launch, or click "Now" to drop in to the mission using today's date and time.

Navigate to any moment of the mission using the time navigator at the top of the screen. The top bar is the entire mission with two bars below it providing magnification. Clicking transcript items, photos, commentary items, or guided tour moments also jumps the mission time to those events.

Main mission audio consists of space-to-ground (left ear), capcom loop (right ear), and on-board recorder (center, when available). Selecting a Mission Control audio channel mutes the main audio, opens the Mission Control audio panel, and plays the "live" audio of each selected Mission Control position. Change channels by selecting the seats in Mission Control. Closing the Mission Control audio panel will unmute the main audio and continue mission playback.

These 50 channels of Mission Control audio spanning the entire mission have only recently been digitized and restored, and are made publicly available here for the first time. They total over 7,200 hours in length.

Please contact Ben Feist for any inquiries.

"I could put my thumb up to a window and completely hide the Earth. I thought, 'Everything I've ever known is behind my thumb."
— Jim Lovell
Commander, Apollo 13

"My biggest emotion on Apollo 13 after the oxygen tank explosion was disappointment that we had lost the landing."
— Fred Haise
Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 13

"Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here."
— Jack Swigert
Command Module Pilot, Apollo 13
Credits

Ben Feist Concept, research, mission data restoration, audio restoration, video editing, software architecture and programming. Follow @BenFeist for updates.

Stephen Slater Archive research and production, historical audio/film synchronization
David Charney Visual design, 3D modeling
Jeremy Cooper Audio restoration programming
Johannes Kemppanen Transcript corrections, additional historical research Editor of the Apollo 13 Flight Journal
Robin Wheeler Photography timing, transcript corrections Editor of the Apollo 10 Flight Journal
Greg Wiseman 30-track Mission Control audio digitization, NASA JSC
Ernie Wright Lunar LRO Animations Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA Goddard
Issa Tseng Flight Director loop audio transcription apollo13realtime.org
Chris Bennett Visual design, interface styling and programming

Thanks

Dan Rooney Supervisory Archivist, Special Media Archives Services Division, National Archives

NASA Headquarters
Dr. Bill Barry Chief Historian, NASA HQ
Dr. Jacob Bleacher Chief Exploration Scientist, NASA HQ

NASA Johnson Space Center
Sandra Tetley Real Property Officer, Historic Preservation Officer, NASA JSC
John Stoll Public Affairs Audio Control Room, NASA JSC
Dan Garrison Jacobs Technology, NASA JSC
Dr. Ryan Zeigler Manager, Apollo Curator, ARES, NASA JSC
Dr. Paul Niles Assistant Chief Scientist, ARES NASA JSC

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Dr. Noah Petro Project Scientist, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Planetary Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Lab, NASA GSFC

University of Texas – Dallas, Center for Robust Speech Systems (CRSS-UTDallas)
Special thanks to the research team at CRSS-UTDallas under the leadership of Dr. John Hansen, for their work in creating the Fearless Steps APOLLO Community Resource, and National Science Foundation (NSF) CCRI funded project, resulting in the recovery of all Apollo mission audio, and full speaker/speech diarization of all 150,000hrs of communications. Details found at the: CRSS-UTDallas Explore Apollo website: exploreapollo.org, and NASA Podcast “Heroes Behind the Heroes” Audio Digitizing Recovery.

Todd Miller Director, Apollo 11 film
Tom Petersen Producer, Apollo 11 film

Lunar and Planetary Institute
Jamie Shumbera Operations Manager

David Woods Author, How Apollo Flew to the Moon
NASA Apollo Flight Journal
NASA Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
Internet Archive
Web hosting by
The crew of Apollo 13
The men and women of Mission Control

THIS WEBSITE IS THE COPYRIGHT OF BEN FEIST ©2020.

THE ARCHIVE MATERIAL ON THIS WEBSITE COMPRISES NASA AUDIO RESTORED BY BEN FEIST AND NASA SYNCHRONISED AUDIO/VISUAL MATERIAL PROVIDED BY STEPHEN SLATER.

ANY SYNCHRONISED FOOTAGE MAY ONLY BE REPRODUCED AND UTILISED WITH THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STEPHEN SLATER. ALL RIGHTS IN THE SYNCHRONISED FOOTAGE ARE EXPRESSLY RESERVED TO STEPHEN SLATER.