On April 17, 1970, the world watched as the Apollo 13 Command Module landed in the Pacific Ocean after an unexpected crisis occurred 200,000 miles away from Earth. Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the Apollo programme and the third that was intended to land on the Moon – a goal that was dashed when one of the two oxygen tanks on the Service Module exploded on route. The mission was aborted and the astronauts completed a number of mid-course corrections in order to achieve the trajectory that would allow them to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.