Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 local time, carrying Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise toward a planned lunar landing. Two days later, an oxygen tank ruptured, forcing NASA and the crew into a desperate improvised rescue that became one of spaceflight's most celebrated survival stories.
Nobody thought much of the number thirteen that afternoon at Kennedy Space Center, though later it would seem almost too on-the-nose: Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 local time on April 11, 1970, and the accident that nearly killed its crew occurred on April 13.
Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise rode a Saturn V into the Florida sky headed for the Fra Mauro highlands, a landing site chosen for its geological interest. The mission looked routine enough that television networks barely covered it. That changed two days later when an oxygen tank in the service module exploded, and Lovell radioed the now-immortal understatement, 'Houston, we've had a problem.'
What followed was a masterclass in improvisation: engineers on the ground worked out how to jury-rig carbon-dioxide scrubbers using duct tape, plastic bags, and cardboard, and the crew squeezed into the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat for the frigid trip home. All three astronauts survived, splashing down safely on April 17. The mission, a failure by its own stated goal, became NASA's finest hour of crisis management.