The film contains an explicit notice that "certain characters and events have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes", so these changes are not goofs.
For instance, the Lovells did not host a party during the Apollo 11 landing; 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) and 'Fred Haise' (qv) were filmed sitting to Capcom Charlie Duke's left in mission control during the landing.
'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) was also at Mission Control when the Apollo 13 accident happened, and was not really the person who devised the power-up procedure.
There are various other minute contradictions of history and the film is prey to a large number of factual errors due to the large volume of documentary footage/evidence from the actual event.
This is not a documentary.
In Houston the moon set that night at about midnight CDT, while the Apollo 11 astronauts were returning to their Lunar Module; hence it would not be visible after the party at the Lovells'.
NASA's "worm" logo was not developed until 1975.
A technician is wearing a Rockwell International logo on his coveralls; the logo was seen as early as 1971.
North American Rockwell became Rockwell International only in 1973 when they acquired Collins Radio.
The aircraft division of North American Aviation/North American Rockwell was known as North American Aircraft Operations.
The downward view toward the rocket rising from the pad shows cars in the parking lots.
During an actual launch, the pad was completely evacuated and the lots would have been empty.
When Apollo 13 is due for re-entry we briefly see 'Gene Kranz' (qv) with a fastened collar and tie.
A minute or so later he is seen fastening his collar and tightening his loose tie.
At the beginning of the movie, 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) comes home with some champagne and greets 'Jack Swigert' (qv) and his date for the evening, Tracy.
When Jack starts telling Tracy about some of the things Jim's done, she says, "Wow," with her hands clasped up by her chest.
In the next shot, her hands are clasped down by her waist.
Just after the explosion, when 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) is saying "we've got multiple caution and warnings, Houston," the MET clock (Mission Elapsed Time in hours, minutes, and seconds) is plainly visible reading 091:34:10.
When next seen less than a minute later, it has backed up to 056:55:12.
The actual explosion took place at MET (Mission Elapsed Time) 055:54:53, a full hour before the time shown.
Just after acquisition of signal, Houston tells the astronauts that their speed is "approximately 7,062 feet per second" and their altitude above the moon is 56 nautical miles.
That speed is 500 ft/s below lunar escape velocity at that altitude, hence impossible on a free return trajectory.
In fact, any free return trajectory symmetrical about the moon-earth line would put them at over 100 nautical miles altitude at acquisition of signal.
As 'Neil Armstrong (I)' (qv) walks on the moon, 'Walter Cronkite' (qv) says the Apollo 11 landing is 18 months after the tragic Apollo 1 launchpad fire.
It was actually 30 months after but that is what Cronkite actually said.
"Mr.
Coffee" brand coffee makers weren't introduced until 1972.
A red ashtray and a paper cup in the control center disappear between shots.
The television that Blanch Lovell watches the final splashdown on is a Sharp model that was not made until the late 1980s.
In the opening sequence with Apollo 1, the crew uses a black keyboard (Block II).
The keyboard on Apollo 1 was white (Block I).
In the opening scene, where the Apollo 1 crew is walking across the swing arm, the Service Module is incorrectly shown as a Block II Service Module (grey w/ white areas); Apollo 1, Serial Number 012, was a Block I Spacecraft--its Service Module was all-white, like the toy spacecraft 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) shows his son later in the movie.
The Apollo 1 fire DID NOT initiate with a switch throw, as this movie depicts.
During the Accident Investigation, this was a possibility which was dismissed after a thorough investigation.
The mating of launch vehicle stage components was a much more delicate and deliberate process that this movie depicts.
Tours, even for high-level VIPs, would most likely be suspended while such operations were in progress.
For the scene where the Third Stage is being lowered onto the Second Stage, a retractable work platform, curved to fit around the Second Stage, would have been in place just below the Upper Field Joint (top of Second Stage).
Numerous hard-hatted workers, most on their knees, would have been on the edge of this platform, making sure that the two stages were in correct alignment for mating.
Notwithstanding that this movie used dramatic license to make a better story, a few points should be clarified, particularly concerning the portrayals of Astronaut 'Fred Haise' (qv) and the Grumman CorporationFred Haise was considered one of the best and brightest of his group (1966); the scenes where he gives 'Jack Swigert' (qv) a dirty look in the Simulator, blames Swigert for the Accident, and nearly screws up the course correction maneuver are not supported by any historical account available to this contributor.
Grumman Corporation Personnel worked as hard as anyone else on the team to bring the Apollo 13 Crew home safely; the display of "no can do" attitude shown in the movie is not supported by any historical account available to this contributor.
This movie also neglects the contributions of Astronaut 'Charlie Duke' (qv); by the time of the Accident, he was no longer contagious but still feeling unwell.
He got out of his sick bed to help devise new Lunar Module Procedures, just as 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) is shown doing for the Command Module - in fact, Duke helped devise the course correction maneuver in the Lunar Module Simulator.
Apollo 13 incorrectly shown going around the Moon with Lunar Module (LM) (Aquarius) Landing Legs still folded.
These had to be extended before the Descent Propulsion System (DPS) could be fired, which had been done (for the first of three times) many hours before.
Once extended, the legs could not be retracted.
Shortly after lift-off, as the crew are removing their gloves and helmets.
In the first shot, 'Jack Swigert' (qv) is seen removing his gloves and glove liners.
The next shot shows Swigert removing his helmet while still wearing his white glove liners.
When 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) goes to bed and takes the phone off the hook, the position of the receiver is different when he is woken up.
A bearded crew member is visible in the lower right corner of the screen towards the end of the movie, about the time 'Jack Swigert' (qv) jettisons the service module.
Before 'Gene Kranz' (qv) calls for people to "Listen Up People" in mission control, we see 'Deke Slayton' (qv) move from the back row to CAP COM row 3 times.
News reporters outside of 'Marilyn Lovell (II)' (qv)'s home during landing voices are out of sync with the video (observed on the IMAX version.
When the astronauts are standing in the moving elevator, the reflection in their helmets is of the stationary elevator.
At the end of the film, 'Gene Kranz' (qv) sits down in his chair and puts his hand to his head.
A few seconds later, in the shot showing 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv), Kranz can be seen in the background sitting down again in the same manner.
Shortly before re-entry, a NASA worker says, " Velocity now reading 34,802 feet per second, range to go 26,025 nautical miles," and 'Gene Kranz' (qv) has his top button done up and his tie pulled up.
Before and after this shot, Kranz's shirt and tie are undone.
'Jack Swigert' (qv)'s "NO" sign is briefly seen on the instrument panel before he actually puts it there.
When 'Marilyn Lovell (II)' (qv) is standing in front of the sliding glass door in her kitchen, a crew member is briefly visible on the left side of the window.
"Houston, we have a problem," is probably the world's most known misquote.
After the bang, the conversation was as follows.
'Jack Swigert' (qv)"Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.
" 'Jack Lousma' (qv)"This is Houston.
Say again please.
" 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv)"Houston, we've had a problem.
We've had a main B bus undervolt.
" However, this was a deliberate change suggested by 'Tom Hanks' (qv) to better convey the sense of urgency in the scene (see trivia).
The controller giving the typhoon prediction for the landing area can be seen holding a full color satellite picture of the region.
There were no color satellite pictures at the time - especially not in (near) real time.
The USS New Orleans (a stand-in for the USS Iwo Jima) is shown with CIWS (Close In Weapons System) that was not in commission until 1977 when tested on the USS Bigelow.
When the astronauts are getting their suits put on for the launch, someone asks 'Jack Swigert' (qv) "Do you need more air?" Swigert shakes his head.
As the camera zooms in slowly, a reflection of three crew members can be seen in his helmet.
The Mission Clock is not supposed to start until the Saturn V rocket lifts off the launch pad.
The drawing 'Gene Kranz' (qv) makes on the chalkboard change shape between scenes.
When CapCom Andy says "Roger Odyssey, we copy your venting.
" the shot ends with him sitting down.
Immediately following this, there is a closer shot of him sitting down again.
In the shot over 'Fred Haise' (qv)'s shoulder he is reading the letter and looking at the pictures of 'Mary Haise' (qv), you see him fold up the letter and place it and the pictures in the green envelope.
In the next shot when Lovell grabs the floating picture of Mary, you see Haise folding the letter again and putting it in the envelope again.
Several scenes show a Lockheed-Martin coffee mug on flight director 'Gene Kranz' (qv)' desk.
Lockheed Martin was not formed until 1995 with the merger of Lockheed Corp.
and Martin Marietta.
Whilst on the way back to Earth, a view out of a window shows the Moon with around 50% of the far side showing.
Only a small percentage of the far side should be visible at that point.
Before re-entry, the crew were informed that their course was shallowing because they did not have the lunar samples that would have been gathered if they had landed on the Moon.
This is incorrect.
Just as Galileo (and the Apollo 15 astronauts) showed that objects of different mass fall at the same rate in a vacuum, Apollo 13's trajectory wasn't affected by its mass.
The actual cause was the lunar module cooling system that evaporated water into space, creating an unintended and small but significant thrust.
Ballast WAS transferred to the CM to shift its center of gravity for proper aerodynamic lift and steering during the actual re-entry.
The five F-1 engines do NOT start simultaneously as depicted.
The center (inboard) engine starts first, followed by pairs at 200 millisecond intervals.
Additionally, they're depicted as CO2 fire extinguishers.
In reality the sequence began with a narrow stream of liquid oxygen falling through the combustion injectors.
The swingarms connecting the launch vehicle to the tower do not come back one at a time as depicted.
There are nine swingarms; four retract during the countdown.
The last five retract simultaneously with first motion at T=0.
As the crew walks across swingarm 9 to the White Room for boarding, swingarm 8 servicing the Service Module is missing.
It correctly appears in other shots of the Saturn V.
During the liftoff scene, we see the astronauts jolted in their seats before the engines have ignited.
'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) says "If I'm in the left-hand seat when the call comes up, *I* stir the tanks.
" The cryo tank switches and gauges were actually between the middle and right-hand seats where they could be reached by the lunar module pilot ('Fred Haise' (qv)) in the right seat, acting as CSM flight engineer, monitoring power and environmental systems.
The left seat controls and displays were for real-time piloting.
During the launch, frozen and chilled condensed air is seen around the Apollo/Saturn stack, due to the low temperature of the fuels inside.
However chilled air is also seen around the Apollo Service Module, which is incorrect, and around the Lunar Module Adaptor, which is not a fuel tank.
When Apollo 13 goes around the Moon and experiences loss of signal with Mission Control, they are also shown going into the Moon's shadow.
This would only happen if the Moon's phase was full, which it wasn't.
When heading around the moon, we see the Earth about 50% lit on the left, so the Sun is to our left.
Our perspective shifts to view the spacecraft starting to go around the Moon, incurring an almost 90% counter-clockwise rotation with respect to the Earth, in which case the Sun's position shifts to about the top of our view.
Yet when we see the Moon, the left side is dark, where we would expect to see the dark side at the bottom of the screen, and certainly the light/dark line parallel to that of the Earth.
At 40 minutes into the film, we see a crescent moon.
Apollo 13 then zooms from lower left into the center of the frame, straight toward the Moon.
The engine glow dies and a voice-over announces S-IVB shutdown.
While visually dramatic, TLI (translunar injection) always took place with the vehicle parallel to the local horizontal and on the opposite side of the earth from where the moon would be at arrival into lunar orbit.
The TV camera in the CSM/LM did not have a viewfinder as depicted in the film.
Nor did it have a red light to show it was on.
A custom modified mini B&W monitor on the top of the camera allowed the astronauts to see where they were shooting.
Such a device was used on the color camera in the CSM since Apollo 10.
When the S-II center engine fails during launch, four engine status lights are on and the #5 light is flashing.
The engine status lights are actually off for normal operation and on continuously when an engine malfunctions.
When the Lunar Module is jettisoned, the docking probe is supposed to remain with the lunar module.
Here it is seen still attached to the CM.
'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) is incorrectly shown taking off his space suit while 'Jack Swigert' (qv) is performing the Transpositon and Docking Maneuver.
Due to the risk of a collision, all three astronauts would be fully suited for this maneuver.
Note the transmission from Houstion just prior to this event"We recommend you secure cabin pressurization at this time.
" This action is never done unless the crew is fully suited.
In the film, 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) suggests using the cross hairs on the window of the CM and line it up with the terminator line of the earth as a procedure to navigate without the computer.
This appears to be an idea "plucked out of the air" by Lovell, and Houston have to confer in order to see if it would work.
In reality this procedure was practiced by Lovell on Apollo 8 in preparation for just such a malfunction of the computer and Houston had full procedural guidelines in place.
The actual problem facing Lovell was the fact that because of no gravity the debris from the explosion was circulating the craft and was blocking the windows making the procedure very difficult.
Heading back to Earth, an explosion occurs and the alarmed crew request confirmation that it was a "Helium Disc".
To save weight, most of the helium to pressurize the descent stage propellants was stored in a cold, supercritical state.
The tank was very well insulated, but heat did slowly leak in, so if the descent engine were not used by a certain time (long after the scheduled landing) a burst disc would rupture to protect the tank from excessive pressure.
Since Apollo 13 only fired the descent engine for a few short course corrections, the rupture of the disc was fully expected and it did not concern either the crew or Mission Control.
However, another and wholly unexpected small explosion - not depicted in the movie - did occur in the descent stage during the return to earth.
An apparent momentary short circuit caused one of the descent stage batteries to vent quite forcefully.
Because of the serious shortage of battery power this caused considerable concern, but fortunately the battery recovered.
Several times on the "outbound" portion of the flight, the Apollo spacecraft is seen heading directly towards the moon.
If this happened in real life, they would miss the moon by tens of thousands of miles.
Since it takes 4 days to get to the moon, they would have to be heading towards a point well ahead of where the moon was at the beginning of their flight.
In other words, they have to aim towards where the moon is going to be in 4 days, and that would not be directly ahead of them.
'The Mavericks' (qv) band formed in 1989, 19 years after the Apollo 13 flight.
During the mid course correction, the spacecraft is seen franticly steering towards earth as the engines are fired.
This is how you would correct the course of an airplane or boat, not a spacecraft.
The spacecraft would have been oriented so the thrust of the engines would be approximately 90 degrees from the intended course, and then the correction burn would have commenced.
The view of Apollo 13 as you looked towards the earth would be of its side, not its engine.
After 'Gene Kranz' (qv) ('Ed Harris (I)' (qv)) has drawn the diagram on the blackboard, he exclaims that 45 hours is not sufficient for the spacecraft to cover the distance between the Moon and the Earth (it is actually about 90 hours/4 days).
'John Aaron (I)' (qv) ('Loren Dean' (qv)) explains that the batteries would die out in 16 hours (and not 45 hours as was being presumed till then) at the current rate of consumption (60 Amps; Amperes, a measure of electric current).
He suggests that the consumption be brought down to 12 Amps (about a fifth of the current consumption rate) by shutting down all non-critical systems in the spacecraft.
It would be fair to deduce then, that(i) The batteries would now last 5 times longer (about 16 * 5 = 80 hours), almost enough for the spacecraft to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
(ii) The charge in the batteries was somewhere between 900 Ah and 1000 Ah (Ampere-Hour, a measure of charge in a battery); drawing 60 Amps from the battery for 16 hours would give 60 Amps * 16 hours = 960 Ah.
However, when 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) ('Gary Sinise' (qv)) enters the scene to simulate the re-entry procedures, John asks his team to keep an eye on the ammeter (used to measure the strength of current, and labeled AMPERES) in the simulator, such that the moving black pointer never crosses the 20 Amps notch (shown by the fixed red pointer).
The 12 Amps benchmark was for the Lunar Module, giving the power requirements to get back towards Earth (at this point the Command Module was drawing zero Amps, as it was completely powered down).
The 20 Amps were the power requirements for the Command Module, which were only required for the last few hours before re-entry.
(The idea of reversing the umbilical flow between the two was to allow the LM power to be used to perform some of the intermediate steps for the CM start-up, since it was assumed that the LM batteries would have enough charge to do so after the prior power conservation steps taken, and to reduce the strain on the CM batteries.
) When 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) and 'Fred Haise' (qv) are adding ballast, the video camera gets passed down twice.
In the opening sequence, the Apollo 1 crew is shown being sealed into their capsule by an outward opening hatch.
One of the main reasons the crew perished in the fire was that the Block I Apollo capsule in service at that time was equipped with an inward opening hatch.
In only a few seconds the buildup of pressure caused by the fire made such an escape hatch nearly impossible to open.
Apollo/Saturn assemblies were transported to the pad with the support tower in front.
The short overhead shot shows the rocket in front.
When shown from ground level the mobile transporter is obviously not carrying anything.
During the course correction sequence in the L.
, 'Jack Swigert' (qv) is shown floating around weightless.
When the engine is burning, the spacecraft is accelerating and those inside would not be in a zero-g environment.
During the mid-course correction the LM engine exhaust is shown as bright yellow in color.
The lunar module's hypergolic propellants actually produce a nearly transparent flame.
Even the bright plumes from other liquid fueled rocket engines operating in an atmosphere will diverge rapidly and become nearly invisible in vacuum.
This is seen in the lunar module ascents during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions, mistakenly cited by conspiracy theorists as "evidence" that the lunar landings were faked.
During the TV broadcast from space, when 'Fred Haise' (qv) plays "Spirit in the Sky" on the cassette player, a cassette with a transparent shell is visible through the window of the tape player as it spins in zero-g.
Moments later, Haise is shown holding the player and the tape now has a black shell with colored stripes on the label.
Additionally, transparent-shell cassettes were not introduced until the late 1980s or early 90s.
'Gene Kranz' (qv)' drawing on the chalkboard was first drawn on a completely clean, chalk-dust free board.
Later shots of the chalkboard show it having brush marks, like it has been erased recently.
When 'Marilyn Lovell (II)' (qv) calls NASA after the explosion, she is talking on a handset which has an RJ (Registered Jack) style connector.
These style jacks were not introduced until the mid 1970s as ordered by the FCC.
Visible in the background of mission control once the crisis starts, collecting the audio of some of the controllers.
This could be because the command center was being televised (which is not mentioned at all, so it probably wasn't), but it is not seen in any later shot of the command center in that scene, including the following wide shot.
The Apollo 13 crew are all shown wearing U.
Naval Aviator wings on their flight suits.
While these wings were correct for 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) (U.
Navy) and 'Fred Haise' (qv) (U.
Marine Corps), 'Jack Swigert' (qv) actually served in the U.
Air Force.
The Booster flight controller is seen in Mission Control at the time of the explosion.
Booster flight controllers are employed by the Marshall Space Flight Center, and are only concerned with the performance of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
They leave as soon as Trans-Lunar Injection is complete, and as such, he would have been long gone by the time the explosion happened.
'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) appears to be using a Maglite in the simulator.
This wasn't introduced until 1979.
When 'Jack Swigert' (qv) ('Kevin Bacon') receives a phone call that he will be replacing 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv), he answers a rotary phone with a handset having a modular phone plug.
Modular connectors were not in use until 1976.
When performing the Lithium Hydroxide canister adaptation, Capcom asks for the cover to be ripped off the flight plan.
This is later used to stop the bag being sucked into the canister, but instead an EVA cue card was used.
Secondly, there is a short scene when 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) states he has inserted a sock into the canister.
Although it was suggested that a piece of sock be used by Houston (among other suggestions), the actual item used was a piece of towel.
Four days before the launch, the astronauts are in a news conference with a 48-star U.
flag in the background.
The 48 star U.
flag was discontinued in 1959 to be replaced by 50 stars.
After the party, 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) holds his thumb in front the gibbous moon.
Then, telling 'Marilyn Lovell (II)' (qv) where to find "her" mountain, he says the Sea of Tranquility is "where the shadow crosses the white part.
" The terminator was in fact near the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, but the moon was less than half full; it's depicted in the scene as gibbous, with the terminator on the other side.
When 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) is standing in his garden looking at the moon (one eye closed) he covers and uncovers the moon (from his perspective) with his thumb.
Since the moon was the only light source in this situation, the shadow of his thumb would have to be shading his eye.
But the third person perspective shows the thumb's shadow elsewhere.
The launch tower was on the north side of the Saturn V.
If 'Kenneth Mattingly' (qv) was watching from east of the pad near the beach, then he would see it on the right.
Houston confirms that the BPC (Boost Protective Cover) is cleared before it is jettisoned by 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv).
The BPC was attached to the launch escape tower and was pulled away when the tower was jettisoned.
In April 1970, 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv)'s daughter can be seen holding 'The Beatles' (qv)' "Let it Be" album, which wasn't released until May 1970.
The astronauts are shown looking at Mare Tranquilitatis, then crossing from sunlight into shadow, followed by loss of signal, all within seconds.
In fact at loss of signal they had been in the moon's shadow for some time and were nowhere near Mare Tranquilitatis.
While passing over Tsiolkovsky crater on the moon's far side, the astronauts also speak of sighting Fra Mauro and Mare Imbrium, both nearly halfway around the moon.
A TV scene at Mission Control shows Houston Astros player 'Jimmy Wynn' (qv) hitting a home run on 13 April 1970.
The Astros were shut out by the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0 that day.
The home run shown was hit 10 June 1967, in a game between Cincinnati and Houston, it was the longest in Crosley field history.
The Apollo 13 Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle is depicted as being delivered to the Launch Pad on April 9, 1970 - two (2) days before launch.
Much more "pad time" was required, and Apollo 13 was actually delivered to Launch Pad 39A on December 15, 1969.
During the TV Show just prior to the accident, 'Fred Haise' (qv) uses the term "Lunar Excursion Module", a term obsolete by 1970.
- PLOTDuring the re-entry simulation with 'Jack Swigert' (qv), 'Fred Haise' (qv) communicates with Houston after they confirmed radio blackout.
In some cold scenes in the LEM, breath is visible.
The warm breath rises, which wouldn't happen in a weightless environment.
During the trip to the moon, a full moon and a full earth can be seen from the windows of the spacecraft.
If the spaceship was between the earth and the moon, it would not have been possible to see the "full phases" of the earth and the moon at the same time.
One of the two would have to have the shadow dark side facing the spacecraft.
Approximately 17:47, there is a photo session.
The Hasselblad 500 camera used is out of film.
It is shown by the red arc on the film magazine.
A camera with all film unexposed should view a "metallic" arc, rather than a red one.
The orientation of the spacecraft during the mid-course correction burn is not consistent to what the crew was seeing out of the Lunar Module's windows.
The words "We have cleared the tower" are heard before the rocket has cleared the tower.
When the astronauts were building the makeshift lunar-module CO2 scrubber, Houston instructed to use the red-suit hoses but when the filter is in place, a blue end is seen (blue-suit hoses).
Twice in the film, 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) covers the moon with his left thumb.
A different person's thumb is used in each as the nail and joint creases are quite different.
When 'Fred Haise' (qv) is vomiting, some of it lands on the camera.
When 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) is fantasizing about taking his first steps on the moon, the front of the LM is shown in full sunlight.
In reality, they always landed with the sun at their backs, in order to use the shadow of the LM as a point of reference during their descent.
The front side of the LM should have been in shadow.
Since it's a daydream, inaccuracies are permitted.
'Marilyn Lovell (II)' (qv) and 'Mary Haise' (qv) are shown viewing the liftoff from the stands and before the rocket has cleared the tower they are looking high in the sky.
They should be looking almost straight forward at that time.
When 'Deke Slayton' (qv) pulls up to 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) while he is near the crawler to tell him of 'Charlie Duke' (qv)'s measles, the trees in the background have no leaves.
This would not be the case in Florida, especially in April.
Additionally, there is steam coming from the car's exhaust, indicating cold temperatures.
The weather is overcast.
When Lovell is seen later in Slayton's office, presumably only minutes or hours later, the trees outside the window are covered with green leaves and the sun is out.
On rounding the Moon, Haise ('Bill Paxton' (qv)) is shown with a camera and mentions "Mare Tranquillitatis, where 'Neil Armstrong (I)' (qv) and 'Buzz Aldrin' (qv) landed.
" - the portion of the Moon shown is actually Palus Putredinis (Marsh of Decay), with the river-like Hadley Rille prominently seen crossing it.
This was the landing site for Apollo 15 in July of 1971.
In the sequence of 'Jim Lovell (I)' (qv) on the lunar surface, the Earth is shown just above the horizon, implying the location on the Moon is somewhere around the edge of the portion that we can see from Earth, but the Fra Mauro landing site was much closer to the centre of the Moon's visible disk, so the Earth should be much higher in the sky.
When flying over the Moon, 'Fred Haise' (qv) looks down at the surface and says "Sea of Tranquillity", when the view out of the window does not show the smooth plains of that area.
The scene shown is a mountainous area with a curving rille running though it; it is actually the Apollo 15 landing site at Hadley Rille.
During the launch, the camera quickly pans over the sound suppression water system.
The tower and distinctive pipes are clearly visible.
This system was not added to the launch complex until 1991, 21 years after Apollo 13.
The current meter used in the relevant scenes has a sticker on it that says it's uncalibrated and not to be used for calibrated measurements.
After the astronauts arrive aboard the ship, the uniforms that the enlisted sailors were shown wearing are incorrect.
The men are shown wearing combination caps, which the navy did not make available until 1973.
Three years after the splashdown.
(at around 17 mins) As the gear is emptied onto the table to solve the CO2 filter problem, the square shaped filter rolls further away from the man who, in the very next shot, picks it up from right in front of himself and gives the instructions to the others.
When Jim and Marilyn are lying on lawn chairs shortly after watching Apollo 11, Jim holds his thumb up to block out the moon.
In the counter shot of Jim's face, the shadow of his thumb is off to the right of his head.
If he were actually blocking the moon's light, the shadow should fall across his face.
When the broadcast from the lunar mission was being received but not actually shown on the airwaves, one of the monitors shows I Dream of Jeannie being aired instead.
The ship's broadcast was on Monday, 13 April 1970, but I Dream of Jeannie was aired on Tuesday in that season.
The news van for Houston TV station KTRK-TV seen parked outside the Lovell residence - the '13' logo on the van was introduced in 1971 a few years after Capital Cities Communications took ownership until 1986 where CapCities purchased ABC-TV which ushered in the modern-day ABC13 in Houston, TX (KTRK-TV is an ABC owned/operated TV network).
The logo was phased out in 1995 prior to the Walt Disney Company purchase of Capital Cities/ABC Television.
1 hour and 55 minutes into the movieWhen Jay Lovell is watching the TV with his classmates, a cameraman wearing a white shirt is reflected in the TV screen.
When Lovell sits in the left seat prior to reentry, and says to Swigert, "Sorry, old habit; she's yours to fly," and moves to the middle seat, they are actually moving from the correct to the wrong seats.
In fact, the mission commander seat is the left seat and the CM pilot is the center according to the official NASA Apollo CM control panel.
L to R is Commander, Pilot and LM pilot.
Any amazing cast! And the special effects still hold up, in my opinion!
This is clearly one of my favorite movies in recent years. Even though some dramatic license is taken, it's still better than The Right Stuff, which it's often compared to.
I mistakenly watched this film thinking it was Apollo 18 (2011) which is sort of horror movie, which I had already seen a few years ago but wanted to re-watch.Turns out I watched the wrong movie.
Every year on Oscar night, rather than get bored to tears watching Hollywood's annual display of self-indulgence and this year, self-loathing...I put on a truly great movie that has withstood the test of time and last night I throughly enjoyed another viewing of "Apollo 13.
This movie is similar to Deep Impact. It packs a lot of emotion into an okay film.
Exciting and thilling film about three astronauts whose aircraft leaking fuel tank has made a moon landing impossible , plus the power drops so low and the toxic gas levels rise so high , as several technical problems threaten both the astronauts' survival and their safe return at Home. It had been less than a year since man first walked on the Moon , but as far as the American public was concerned , Apollo 13 was just another routine space flight mission until these words pierced the immense void of space .
Not for children !.(It's a bit scary).
One of the best movies happening in space, it is really a remarkable movie. Tom Hanks, bill paxson, Ed Harris and Kevin Bacon are such wonderful actors and they play so well their roles.
I saw this movie with a good friend. We were SO IMPRESSED that we left the movie saying 'vote for Opie'.
