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And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we continue the history of the American space program with the flight of Apollo Thirteen, the flight that almost did not return home. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: American astronauts in Apollo Eleven landed on the moon July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine. A second landing was made four months later. Both flights were almost perfect. Everything worked as planned. Everyone expected the third moon-landing flight, Apollo Thirteen, would go as well as the first two. But it did not. Apollo Thirteen roared into space on Thursday, April eleventh, nineteen seventy. The time was thirteen-thirteen, one-thirteen p. m. local time. Navy captain James Lovell was commander of Apollo Thirteen. He had flown on Apollo Eight, the first flight to orbit the moon. The two other crew members were civilians -- John Swigert and Fred Haise. Apollo Thirteen was their first space flight. STEVE EMBER: The Apollo Thirteen spacecraft was like the earlier Apollos. It had three major parts. One was the command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module and then ride back to Earth in it. It was the only part of the spacecraft that could survive the fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere. The lunar module was the second part. It would carry two of the astronauts to the moon's surface. It would later launch them from the moon to rejoin the command module. | 
