Apollo 13: Gripping account on Netflix of the spacecraft that almost didn’t make it

Apollo 13: Survival provides an edge-of-the-seat take on the experience of three US astronauts who faced disaster unless a rescue plan could quickly be created, writes Esther McCarthy

Apollo 13: Survival: Marilyn Lovell and her family gaze skywards towards their beloved Apollo crew-member. Pictures: Netflix

Just nine months after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, NASA faced the greatest and most urgent crisis in its history. On the night of April 13, 1970, a catastrophic explosion rocked the Apollo 13 spacecraft, leaving three astronauts stranded 200,000 miles from home amid rapidly dwindling oxygen and power supplies.

It prompted astronaut Jack Swigert to say the often misquoted phrase “Houston we’ve had a problem here”, as scientists scrambled against impossible odds to bring the men home, while millions watching throughout the world held their collective breath.