Nslate 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew of the third manned mission to the Moon faced an astronaut’s worst nightmare: an explosion on the spacecraft. It's the plot of the Oscar-winning film Apollo 13, but it's also a true story of survival against the odds.

 Was it doomed from the beginning? The scientists at Houston were in charge of getting the spacecraft to the Moon and back. They had scheduled the April 1970 lift-off for thirteen minutes after the thirteenth hour. They had also planned the moon landing itself for the thirteenth day of the month. For those who believe in bad luck, perhaps the only thing missing was a Friday. Scientists aren't supposed to be superstitious, though, and despite minor problems on lift-off, Apollo 13 started its journey.

 Two days into the mission, the three-man crew faced catastrophe. They had been carrying out routine checks when there was a loud bang. Warning lights were starting to flash furiously. Looking out into space, they could see a trail of gas - the spacecraft was leaking oxygen. They sent out a short message to the scientists back on Earth: "Houston, we've had a problem here." At first, they thought that a meteor had hit them, but they later found out that a short circuit had caused an oxygen tank to explode. Whatever the cause, they knew there was no time to lose. Their electricity supply in the command module depended on that oxygen and pretty soon they would run out of both.

The only solution was to conserve oxygen by moving from the command module into the lunar module - the section of the spacecraft that would have landed on the Moon. Now though, they were using it as a kind of lifeboat. With its own power supply, oxygen and water, the three men could survive in the lunar module and return to Earth. There was another problem though. In an enclosed space like a lunar module, the carbon dioxide the crew was breathing out was dangerous. The equipment to clear the air of carbon dioxide was only built for two people. Now it had to cope with three. Amazingly, the crew managed to put together an adapter that reduced the carbon dioxide to a safe level.

 There was one final obstacle. The lunar module wasn't strong enough to re-enter Earth's atmosphere so the crew had to transfer back into the damaged command module. To everyone's relief, the crew of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the South Pacific Ocean on April 17th. It was a space flight that would go down in history. Although the crew didn't land on the Moon, NASA* still considers them  the mission a success. The Apollo 13 disaster was proof that their highly-trained astronauts could deal with anything that could go wrong.

Task 2 -Use these words/phrases to complete the sentences. 

                 • meteor • lift-off • re-enter • manned • leaking • landing • carbon dioxide 

 Apollo 13, with a crew of three people, was the third ……………. mission to the Moon. 

 There were some problems during the ………………… even before the spacecraft got into space. 

They noticed the spacecraft was ……………. gas into space. 

They thought a …………… had hit the spacecraft. 

The air in the lunar module contained …………………

The lunar module managed to ………………… Earth's atmosphere without on the Moon.

Task 3 - Read the text and the questions below. For each question, choose the correct letter A, B , C or D. 

1 What is the writer's purpose? 

                 A to give advice to astronauts 

                 B to describe a mission to the Moon 

                 C to persuade people to travel in space 

                 D to explain how to travel to the Moon 

2 What does the writer say about the mission? 

                 A There were some problems at the start. 

                 B They had planned the lift-off for a Friday. 

                 C The scientists believed they had bad luck. 

                 D The lift-off had been delayed. 

3 What was the astronauts' attitude towards the explosion? 

                 A They didn't think it was a problem. 

                 B They thought they would die. 

                 C They realised they had to do something. 

                 D They believed there was nothing they could do.

 4 How did the astronauts survive? 

                 A They used the lunar module as a lifeboat.

                 B They created a new oxygen supply. 

                 C They repaired the command module. 

                 D They adapted to less oxygen. 

5 Which would be the most appropriate headline? 

                 A APOLLO 13 CREW LOST IN SPACE 

                 B LIFE AND DEATH DRAMA IN SPACE 

                 C METEOR STOPS MOON LANDING 

                 D ASTRONAUTS WALK ON MOON

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