The little-known role Australia played in the mission to land on the moon

When disaster struck Apollo 13, the obstacles were huge, their options limited. As one of our most well known adventures played out in deep space, it was a forgotten station in the Australian outback that was tasked with bringing the crew home, writes Mick O’Hare

Astronaut and lunar module pilot Fred Haise waits to be hoisted up to a recovery helicopter after landing in the South Pacific (Getty)

Fifty years ago the world was watching rapt as one of humanity’s greatest adventure stories played out. The narrative of Apollo 13 is well known. “Houston, we have a problem” and “Failure is not an option” (neither of which were actually said during the events of April 1970) became the catchphrases of possibly the greatest rescue mission ever undertaken amid a tale of enterprise and determination like no other.

Apollo 13 launched from Kennedy Space Centre en route to make the third moon landing, but 56 hours into the flight one of its oxygen tanks exploded. From that point on it became a matter of getting the three astronauts back to Earth. Alive.

The obstacles were huge – a sick crew member, oxygen leaking into space, breathable air set to run out two days before they could return, inoperative fuel cells, fading batteries, temperatures near freezing, limited water and, to cap it all off, it was possible the command module’s heat shield was damaged in the explosion. The astronauts would simply burn up as they re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, if they even made it back at all.