Even before Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon re-introduced them into popular consciousness, the crew of the real Apollo 13 achieved minor celebritydom. The routine mission was to take the three men to the moon to study a surface formation, and on the way give the viewers at home an idea of life inside the lunar capsule. With all the pre-flight mechanical checks completed and everything greenlit for launch, the only deviation from the original plan was the substitution of John L. “Jack” Swigert as Command Module pilot for Ken Mattingly, who fell ill with the measles. Nobody thought the scientists would dominate television and radio for the next week.

On this day, April 11, in 1970, the most famous space flight in history, the Apollo 13 spaceship, launched smoothly to the moon. For three days, the crew worked on preparations for landing, until on the 14th, the oxygen tank on board the service module exploded.

The famous Tom Hanks line “Houston, we have a problem” was actually uttered, although in slightly different form, by Jack Swigert. Mission control instructed the crew to ready an instrument to study a comet they were passing by. Moments after carrying out the orders, the crew heard a loud bang. Swilgert got back on the line to Mission Control: “OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”