60
Unit 3
Heroes
Skills
3C
Reading
1
Read the article and put the events in
the correct order.
A
There was an explosion on Apollo 13.
B
The astronauts moved to the Lunar
Module.
C
The astronauts landed back on Earth.
D
Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert
left Florida in Apollo 13.
1
E
The astronauts repaired the oxygen
container.
F
Mission Control sent Apollo 13 towards
the Moon.
2
Read the article again and answer the
questions.
1
What date did Apollo 13 leave?
2
Who was ill and didn’t go?
?
3
Why did they move to the Lunar Module?
?
4
What did they use to repair the oxygen
container?
?
On April 11, 1970
You probably know about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
– the first men on the Moon. They landed there in the
spacecraft Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. 600 million people
watched them! But did you know that other Apollo missions
went to the Moon? In fact, Apollo 13 was nearly a disaster.
Apollo 13 left Florida, USA on April 11, 1970. It had two parts
– the Command Module and the Lunar Module. There were
three astronauts – Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert.
One man, Ken Mattingly, didn’t go because he was ill.
After two days, on April 13, there was an explosion. It
damaged the Command Module. The astronauts were in
danger. They told Mission Control, ‘We have a problem
here.’ There was only enough air for 15 minutes! So they
moved to the Lunar Module.
In the Lunar Module there wasn’t much power, food, water
or air. They couldn’t breathe, because the air was bad. But
they repaired the oxygen container with a plastic bag and a
sock! They could breathe again.
Now they had one big problem. They were 321,800
kilometres from Earth and they didn’t have enough power
to get back. Mission Control decided to send the astronauts
towards the Moon. Then gravity could pull the spacecraft
back to Earth without power.
It was a race against time. Back on Earth Ken Mattingly
saved his friends’ lives, too. The astronauts couldn’t use
their computers so Ken guided them to Earth. It was very
dangerous. But they landed in the Pacific Ocean on April 17
at 1:07 pm. The men were alive – and heroes!