Gene Kranz
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(CNN) - There were problems on Apollo 13 long before the oxygen tank exploded during the April 1970 mission putting three astronauts at risk of losing all life-sustaining air.
They were minor problems, but with 30 years of hindsight, they seem more like omens.
A primary crewmember had to be yanked from the mission after exposure to a disease. A liquid oxygen vent malfunctioned and an engine shut down two minutes early during the flight.
The three men aboard the ill-fated ship compensated for each of those snafus and kept their sights set on reaching the moon. But after the disabled oxygen tank left them with 10 hours of backup air for a 87-hour mission, their goal changed from one of hope - walking on the moon -- to one steeped in despair -- trying to stay alive.
The world listened as Houston mission control scrambled to come up with a rescue plan, and waited as the astronauts coaxed the crippled spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth. They used a smaller moon-landing craft as their lifeboat, stretching its resources to provide life support for three men for 84 hours. It was designed to sustain two men for 49 1/2 hours.
The gripping tale of survival immortalized the Apollo 13 astronauts and the chief mission controller who directed their safe return. Yet all four distinguished themselves long after the mission, remembered as NASA's most "successful failure."
After retiring from the space program in 1973, the Apollo 13 commander served as an executive for several communications companies. More recently he co-authored "Lost Moon," a chronicle of the Apollo 13 adventure that director Ron Howard turned into a top-grossing Hollywood film.
In January, Lovell went to Antarctica as a member of a scientific expedition searching for meteorites that could offer evidence of past life on Mars. Team members found about 20 meteorite fragments and are studying them for signs of organic compounds or fossils.
Fred Haise, then and now
The lunar module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission, Haise went on to fly the space shuttle prototype Enterprise. He resigned after a 20-year career with NASA in 1979 to become vice-president of Grumman Aerospace Co.
He recently retired as president of Northrop Grumman Technical Services, but continues as a motivational speaker, earning as much as $10,000 an appearance.
Swigert took the slot as Apollo 13 command module pilot 24 hours before launch because the primary crewmember, Lt. Commander Thomas K. Mattingly, was exposed to German measles.
From 1973 to 1977, Swigert served as executive director of the committee on science and technology in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After losing a bid for the U.S. Senate from Colorado in 1978, he became an executive with a professional services corporation and then an international mining company. In 1982, he won an election for a new U.S. congressional district in Colorado, but died of complications from cancer a week before he would have taken his seat.
NASA's chief flight director for more than 30 years, Kranz led the mission control team in Houston that brought the Apollo 13 crew back to Earth.
He directed other historic space flights as well, including the Apollo 11 moon landing and a space shuttle mission that repaired the Hubble space telescope. And he took part in the Skylab program.
Kranz retired from NASA in 1997 and now works as a consultant and motivational speaker. "Failure is not an option," the motto that galvanized him and mission control during the Apollo 13 disaster, is a primary topic of his presentations. He commands up to $20,000 per speech.
