6 Amazing Apollo 13 Fun Facts: The Untold Stories of Space Exploration's Most Thrilling Mission

1. NASA's Set Confusion

Houston, we have a doppelgänger: During the filming of "Apollo 13," meticulous sets were crafted with such precision and detail that they used original Apollo materials and removable sections, ultimately leaving NASA employees bewildered as they mistook the movie set for the actual Mission Control Center.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

2. The Real "Houston" Line

Houston, we have an identity mix-up: Contrary to popular belief, it was command module pilot John "Jack" Swigert, not Jim Lovell, who first aired Apollo 13's woes with the iconic line, "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here." Lovell merely chimed in with more specific intel later on, as confirmed by NASA's official transcript.
Source => abc13.com

Did you know an astronaut once smuggled a sandwich into space, causing a crumbly chaos and leading to a change in NASA policies? 🚀🥪 Discover this tasty space tale!

=> Fun Facts about Space-Exploration

3. Apollo 13's Vomit Comet

Ever heard of a stomach-churning roller coaster ride? Imagine that, but in the sky, with Tom Hanks and friends doing somersaults: during the filming of "Apollo 13," the cast and crew filmed weightless scenes in a KC-135 plane known as the Vomit Comet, which simulated zero gravity by flying in curved arcs called parabolas, each lasting about 25 seconds, leading to a chaotic ballet of floating actors, cameras, and equipment.
Source => slashfilm.com

4. Moon Buggy's Delayed Debut

Remember that time moon buggies were like an over-packers forgotten suitcase? Stranded and almost unpacked, but ultimately left waiting in the wings: Apollo 13 was supposed to introduce the Lunar Roving Vehicle to the world, but an unfortunate explosion put the kibosh on that idea, and it wasn't until Apollo 15 that the moon buggy got to strut its stuff on the lunar catwalk.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

5. Diet Soda-sized Rocket Replica

Blast off with a diet soda-sized scaled replica of the ultimate moon shooter: The Science Center of Connecticut houses a 1-to-10 scale model of a Saturn V rocket, the same mammoth machine that catapulted Apollo spacecraft towards lunar territory, standing a whopping three stories high and weighing a hefty six million pounds at liftoff.
Source => nytimes.com

6. Tony Hawk Meets Jim Lovell

When the hawk met the astronaut: in a gravity-defying encounter, pro skater Tony Hawk once had the honor of kickflipping into astronaut Jim Lovell's orbit at a charity event. The real moonwalk master: Lovell, Apollo 13's commander, managed to bring his crew safely back to Earth despite a slew of life-threatening challenges encountered on their harrowing space adventure.
Source => newsweek.com