A Case Study of the Failure on Apollo 13: Based on TMX-65270, Report of Apollo 13 Review Board
The dramatic journey of the crippled Apollo 13 vehicle has been heavily documented and popularized. Many people know there was an explosion in the service module which caused the vehicle to lose its oxygen supply. Less well known is the set of circumstances which led to the explosion. This paper examines the manufacturing, processing and testing history of oxygen tank #2, detailing the additive effects which caused the oxygen to ignite and to overpressure the tank.