Apollo 13 Historical Accuracy

Apollo 13 was overall a very accurate movie, scientifically and factually. Of course there were things changed in order to advance the story and make the movie more interesting, but most of these things were very small. Apollo 13 was an Apollo mission that came after the first landing on the moon. The problem was that since the United States had already beaten Russia to the moon people weren’t sure why they needed to go back, so there were less resources and money going into this mission. The three men on the mission were Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, and Jim Lovell. The flight was planning on landing on the moon but unfortunately something went wrong, one of two fuel cell oxygen tanks in the service module had exploded. Damaged Teflon insulation on the wires to the stirring fan inside oxygen tank 2 allowed the wires to short-circuit and ignite the insulation. The lives of the three astronauts were threatened because of the massive internal damage in the spacecraft. NASA had to make the decision between landing on the moon and getting home safely. They decided to get everyone home so they then had to come up a plan to do so. They were able to do so but it took a lot
According to a New York Times article on technical mistakes in the movie (and personal observation), the film shows the moon changing phases several times during Apollo 13's four-day journey. There should have been only one phase, a waning half-moon, since Apollo 13 was scheduled to land on the left side of the moon and landing was always planned for sunrise, so that long shadows could aid navigation. (Sunrise on the moon, of course, occurs only every 28 days.). The changing of the phases constantly is probably for a more dramatic effect and to show that this is going on within multiple days because if the audience sees something changing it will subconsciously help them split events up into separate