CHICAGO (AP) -- Surviving Apollo 13 astronauts and several flight directors have reunited to remember a failed moon mission 40 years ago that they turned into one of the greatest triumphs in the history of space exploration.
Those who gathered Monday at Chicago's Adler Planetarium included Apollo 13 commander James Lovell, fellow crew member Fred Haise and NASA's legendary flight director, Gene Kranz. All three were immortalized in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13."
The third crew member, Jack Swigert, died in 1982.
Apollo 13's three-man crew blasted off from Cape Kennedy on April 11, 1970. An oxygen tank ruptured two days later. The astronauts were forced to scrap the moon mission and focus solely on making it back to Earth.
Kranz told reporters that the crisis forged a lifelong bond between everyone involved.
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