Curious Coincidences Crop Up Between Apollo 13 and STS-113
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Long time space cadets are beginning to point out the growing number of similarities between events associated with the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar landing mission and NASA's current shuttle Endeavour mission, which carries the designation STS-113.
Both have required replacement of prime crewmebers with their backups. On Apollo 13, Tom Mattingly was swapped out with Jack Swigert after Mattingly was exposed to German Measles. On STS-113, pilot Paul Lockhart and Expedition Six science officer Don Pettit are to fly because their counterparts were removed from flight status for medical reasons.
Both experienced mission-impacting problems with systems related to oxygen. It was an oxygen tank that ruptured inside the Apollo 13 service module that triggered the dramatic effort to return the crew to Earth. On STS-113, a leak in the gaseous oxygen system inside Endeavour forced a minimum one-week launch delay.
Also of note, both the Apollo 13 and STS-13 crews decided to use Roman numerals on their crew patch.
While not necessarily superstitious, the STS-113 crew say they have been aware of their mission designation.
"We were joking a lot about being number 13," Expedition Six commander Ken Bowersox told SPACE.com during a preflight interview. "I kept telling (STS-113 commander Jim Wetherbee) we needed to change the mission number. I pointed out Apollo 13, STS-113 -- maybe we should become STS-112.1 or something like that."
Apollo was the first manned program to reach 13 flights. It has been suggested by many -- including current U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who flew aboard Columbia in 1986 -- that NASA managers changed the shuttle numbering system after STS-9 so there wouldn't be an STS-13. The 13th shuttle mission to fly was known as STS-41G.
