Space History Photo: Apollo 13 Astronauts Practice Moonwalk at KSC

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Apollo 13 astronauts practice their moonwalk in February of 1970 at the Kennedy Space Center before the lunar mission. (Image credit: NASA.)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell and Fred W. Haise, Jr., are shown during practice moonwalk at Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 3, 1970. Lovell (right) operates Lunar Equipment conveyor, a pulley arrangement to load and unload equipment from the cabin section of Lunar Module.

Apollo 13's original target on the Moon was the Fra Mauro region, southeast of the Ocean of Storms, to perform an inspection, survey, and sampling of the lunar surface, as well as to deploy and activate the ALSEP package, obtain photographs of candidate exploration sites and to develop human capability to work in the lunar environment. This mission drastically changed after an explosion of one of the oxygen tanks in the Service Module forced the Apollo 13 crew to abort the lunar landing mission and return to Earth.

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U.S. Space Agency

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. government agency in charge of the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Founded in 1958, NASA is a civilian space agency aimed at exploring the universe with space telescopes,  satellites, robotic spacecraft, astronauts and more. The space agency has 10 major centers based across the U.S. and launches robotic and crewed missions from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida. Its astronaut corps is based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. To follow NASA's latest mission, follow the space agency on Twitter or any other social channel, visit: nasa.gov.