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A new documentary chronicling the events surrounding the Apollo 13 mission, in which three astronauts found themselves stranded in space following a catastrophic explosion, is being released on Netflix this week.
Apollo 13: Survival uses archive material and rare access to the complete audio recordings of the mission of astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.
The event was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Tom Hanks in 1995, but is documented in a historical format with never-before-seen footage, and interviews with the original team for the first time.
It comes at the same time as two pilots currently find themselves deserted on a spaceflight outside Earth in an eerie echo of the events of 1970.
The original mission marked the greatest crisis in NASA’s history, just nine months after Neil Armstrong first walked on the Moon. The team were halfway towards replicating Armstrong’s success, when a stir of an oxygen tank damaged wire insulation causing an explosion which destroyed the vessel’s entire oxygen supply. Back on Earth, Mission Control fought to enact an emergency operation to bring the men home.
“More than 50 years after the mission, the film put me right back in the captain’s seat,” Apollo 13 captain Lovell said in a statement. “Those were the days! Seeing the historic footage and hearing the perspectives of family and friends on the ground truly stirred my emotions.
“I am grateful the world now has this excellent documentary showing the raw emotions and triumph we felt back then. My hope is our experience in space will continue to inspire new heights of exploration for many years to come.”
The team were eventually saved through the instruction of engineers back on Earth, who among other things, guided them in creating an air purifier using cardboard, gaffer tape, and a sock. Reentering the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, the prospect of survival was still uncertain, with no guarantee that their heat shields would hold or that their parachutes would open.
The movie also follows Lovell’s family as they await the return of their husband and father.
“I have never experienced anything like this in my life,” Marilyn Lovell told press at the time. “I didn't know for four days if I was a wife or a widow.”
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New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
“Dad always says: ‘Never leave home without duct tape!’,” Lovell’s son Jeff told The Telegraph.
Director Peter Middleton said, “We resolved not to use any on-camera or ‘talking-head’ interviews, privileging archival recordings and testimony from sources recorded as close as possible to the mission.
“Today, humanity is on the cusp of an exciting new age of lunar exploration. As a roster of countries, tech billionaires, and private corporations jostle to return to the moon before this present decade is out, it has never felt more urgent to hold onto the image of the Earth in the rearview.
“In the enduring words of Jim Lovell, to contemplate the improbable wonder of “our grand oasis in the vastness of space”.
Apollo 13: Survival is out on Netflix on 5 September
