LUCKY 13

On 11 April, at 13:13 Houston time, Apollo 13 was launched, destined for the Moon. Following a disastrous explosion of an oxygen-tank, the crew was left stranded in space with minimal power. Thankfully, they were equipped with OMEGA Speedmasters.

Among the many challenges faced by the astronauts was manually firing an engine to correctly align the damaged craft for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Using their Speedmaster watches the crew successfully timed a 14-second burn that saw them splash down to much relief on 17 April – 142 hours and 54 minutes after launch.