Video: 'Apollo 13 Re-entry (1970)'

(Friday, April 17, 1970, 1:07:41 p.m. EST) — The three Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down gently today in the Pacific, ending a four-day fight for survival.

They rode the command module Odyssey to a pinpoint landing within five miles of the USS Iwo Jima, 800 yards from their aiming point and 610 miles southeast of American Samoa.

Weary but unharmed after their abortive and perilous moon?landing mission, Capt. James A. Lovell Jr., Fred W. Haise Jr., and John L. Swigert Jr. dropped into a gentle sea for a routine recovery.

Video: '(14) Apollo 13 (CBS,NBC & ABC NEWS)' (splashdown coverage begins with video #21)

When the Odyssey descended from a partly cloudy sky, its orange and white parachutes billowing in the sun, there were cheers from sailors, on the flight deck of the Iwo Jima.

The final moments of the space voyage seemed anti-climactic after the hours of harrowing tension after an explosion in the command module crippled the spaceship Monday night.

Accidental ignition of damaged wire insulation inside the oxygen tank as it was being routinely stirred had caused the explosion that vented the tank’s contents.

Video: 'APOLLO 13 SPLASHDOWN, ABC News, April 17, 1970'

Without oxygen, needed both for breathing and for generating electric power, the service module’s propulsion and life support systems could not operate.

The CM’s systems had to be shut down to conserve its remaining resources for reentry, forcing the crew to transfer to the lunar module (LM) as a lifeboat.

With the lunar landing canceled, mission controllers worked to bring the crew home alive.