CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Apollo 13′s astronauts never gave a thought to their mission number as they blasted off for the moon 50 years ago.
Even when their oxygen tank ruptured two days later — on April 13. Jim Lovell and Fred Haise insist they’re not superstitious.
They even use 13 in their email addresses. As mission commander Lovell sees it, he's incredibly lucky. Not only did he survive NASA’s most harrowing moonshot, he’s around to mark its golden anniversary. “I’m still alive.
As long as I can keep breathing, I’m good,” Lovell, 92, said in an interview with The Associated Press from his Lake Forest, Illinois, home.