Apollo 13 Trivia
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This Apollo 13 trivia quiz has 110 free questions with answers and covers both the mission and the movie. On the mission side: the rubella scare that swapped the crew two days out, the tank stir and the 95 seconds before the bang, the lunar module lifeboat, the free-return and PC+2 burns, the mailbox built from duct tape and manual covers, the 3 °C cabin and 200 ml water ration, the six-minute blackout, the review board and the Grumman towing invoice. On the film side: how Tom Hanks beat Kevin Costner to the part, the KC-135 zero-g shoot, who turned down Swigert and Haise, Ron Howard's family cameos, the line Gene Kranz never said, the Oscars it won and lost, and where it bends the record. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen the film; hard ones want the tank's manufacturer and the university that solved the docking-tunnel problem. Every answer has been checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the mission and the film, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which crewed Moon landing was Apollo 13 meant to be?
Third
Third was the plan, after Apollo 11 and 12, but the crew could only swing around the Moon and head home without touching down.
Q 02Which mission did Jim Lovell fly in December 1968, before commanding Apollo 13?
Apollo 8
Apollo 8 made Lovell one of the first three people to orbit the Moon; Apollo 13 took him back a second time, yet he never set foot on it.
Q 03What exploded aboard Apollo 13 two days into the flight?
An oxygen tank in the service module
An oxygen tank in the service module blew after a routine stir ignited damaged wire insulation inside it; the blast emptied both of the craft's oxygen tanks into space.
Q 04Which spacecraft did the Apollo 13 crew use as a 'lifeboat' after the explosion?
The lunar module
The lunar module, designed to keep two men alive on the Moon for about two days, became a lifeboat: Houston improvised ways for it to support three men for most of the trip home.
Q 05Who played Jim Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks won the part for his knowledge of Apollo and space history, although the first script had been written with Kevin Costner in mind because he resembled Lovell.
Q 06Who directed the 1995 film Apollo 13?
Ron Howard
Ron Howard won the Directors Guild award for Apollo 13, yet the Academy left him off its Best Director shortlist even as the film collected nine nominations.
Q 07Which famous line in the film Apollo 13 was invented by its screenwriters?
Failure is not an option
'Failure is not an option' was coined by the screenwriters after flight controller Jerry Bostick told them failure was never considered; Gene Kranz liked it enough to title his 2000 memoir with it.
Q 08Which Apollo 13 crew member was grounded days before launch after being exposed to rubella?
Ken Mattingly
Ken Mattingly, the prime command module pilot, had been exposed to German measles through backup crewman Charles Duke and was replaced by his own backup; he never fell ill and later flew Apollo 16.
Q 09Which two Oscars did Apollo 13 (1995) win from its nine nominations?
Best Film Editing and Best Sound
Best Film Editing and Best Sound were its only wins: Braveheart took Best Picture, and the space epic even lost the visual effects prize to Babe's talking pig.
Q 10Where did the Apollo 13 command module splash down?
The South Pacific Ocean
The South Pacific Ocean was no accident: an engine burn after rounding the Moon shortened the trip and moved the splashdown to where the main recovery fleet waited.
Q 11What was the call sign of Apollo 13's lander?
Aquarius
Lovell took it from Aquarius the water-bearer, not from the song in Hair as some reporters assumed.
Q 12What was the call sign of the Apollo 13 command module?
Odyssey
Odyssey was Lovell's pick: he wrote that he liked the word's meaning, a long voyage with many changes of fortune, which soon proved apt.
Q 13What did the Apollo 13 crew and Mission Control famously improvise from duct tape, plastic and cardboard?
A carbon dioxide scrubber adapter
The 'mailbox' was a carbon dioxide scrubber adapter that let the command module's square lithium hydroxide canisters work in the lander's round receptacles; CAPCOM Joe Kerwin read up the build instructions.
Q 21Apollo 13's crew rationed drinking water mainly to save it for what?
Cooling the craft's electronics
Cooling the craft's electronics came first: the lander's water also chilled its systems, so each man drank only about six ounces a day, and together they came home over 30 pounds lighter.
Q 22As Apollo 13's powered-down cabin fell to near freezing, what did its two would-be moonwalkers wear for warmth?
Their lunar overshoes
Their lunar overshoes went on after the crew ruled out spacesuits as too bulky and sweaty; the third man, who had no Moon boots and wet feet, suffered most as the cabin fell to about 3 °C.
Q 23Which Apollo 13 crew member developed a urinary tract infection on the way home?
Q 14Which actor played flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13?
Ed Harris
Ed Harris had already played a real space hero, astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff, before swapping the capsule for the flight director's console and earning an Oscar nomination.
Q 15What did Richard Nixon award the Apollo 13 crew when they reached Hawaii?
The Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom went to Mission Control first: Nixon stopped in Houston on his way to Hawaii after NASA chief Thomas Paine declined the medal and proposed the controllers instead.
Q 16What was Apollo 13's intended landing site on the Moon?
Fra Mauro
Fra Mauro, a hilly region named after a crater within it, was chosen because it is thought to be debris hurled out by the giant Imbrium impact, a ready-made sample of the Moon's early history.
Q 17Which record did Apollo 13's crew hold until Artemis II flew in 2026?
Farthest from Earth
Farthest from Earth, about 400,000 km: the emergency loop around the Moon carried the crew farther out than the planned landing would have, and the mark stood for 56 years.
Q 18Which everyday chore did Apollo 13's command module pilot admit mid-flight to having forgotten?
File his income tax return
File his income tax return: the last-minute crew swap had left no time before the 15 April deadline, and Houston radioed back that being out of the country earned a 60-day extension.
Q 19Apollo 13 has long been summed up at NASA by which phrase?
A successful failure
'A successful failure' is NASA's own label: the Moon landing was lost, but the experience gained in getting the crew home alive counted as a win.
Q 20What was Apollo 13's mission motto?
Ex luna, scientia
Ex luna, scientia means 'From the Moon, knowledge'; Lovell adapted it from his alma mater's motto, and the phrase is lettered on the mission patch.
Fred Haise
Fred Haise ran a fever from a urinary tract infection, probably brought on by the tiny water ration; he was the first man hoisted into the recovery helicopter and needed antibiotics.
Q 24Which famous astronaut sat on the review board that investigated the Apollo 13 accident?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong joined the Cortright board less than a year after walking on the Moon; its findings forced design changes, and no Apollo crew flew again for nine months.
Q 25In a first, what did NASA do with Apollo 13's spent third rocket stage?
Crash it into the Moon
Crash it into the Moon was the plan: the spent stage struck as a seismic experiment, Apollo 12's seismometer felt the jolt, and Lovell quipped that at least something had worked on this flight.
Q 26What hid the stars Apollo 13's crew needed to check their alignment?
Debris from the blast
Debris from the blast glinted in the sunlight like false stars, so the crew sighted on the Sun instead; the alignment proved less than half a degree out, and the long burn home went ahead.
Q 27Which manufacturer jokingly billed North American Rockwell for 'towing' Apollo 13 around the Moon?
Grumman
Grumman's tongue-in-cheek bill charged for towing by the mile and for an 'additional guest in room'; North American refused to pay, noting it had ferried Grumman's craft to the Moon before for free.
Q 28Why did Apollo 13's re-entry worry Mission Control?
The blackout overran
The blackout overran, perhaps because the capsule came in at a shallow angle, and controllers were left waiting well past the moment the crew was due to answer.
Q 29The Apollo 13 film was adapted from which 1994 book?
Lost Moon
Lost Moon was Lovell's own account, co-written with journalist Jeffrey Kluger, and its film rights were being shopped around before the book was even written.
Q 30How were the weightless scenes in Apollo 13 filmed?
Aboard NASA's KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft
Aboard NASA's KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft, the 'Vomit Comet', cast and crew filmed in bursts of real weightlessness lasting under half a minute each, an idea Steven Spielberg suggested.