Apollo 13: 3. Lifeboat
13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle
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The Command Service Module of Swigert
Apollo 13 is currently still on a course designed to get them to the surface of the Moon and its current trajectory won't get them back home. If they do nothing, they'll eventually swing past the Moon but then miss the Earth by thousands of miles. They could choose to turn around and come back directly, reversing their path before they reach the Moon. For such a drastic maneuver they would have to burn the engine until its fuel was almost exhausted leaving little opportunity to correct their trajectory later if needed. But still, no one can be sure that the main engine on the service module hasn't been damaged by the explosion in the same section of the spacecraft. During Apollo 13, George Kalen
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