Apollo 13 Imaged Far Side’s Papaleksi Crater During Lunar Flyby

Summary: Apollo 13 imaged the far side’s Papaleksi Crater during a lunar flyby that passed behind the moon Wednesday, April 15, 1970.

Oblique, northeast-looking view of lunar far side, photographed April 1970 from the Apollo 13 spacecraft, shows conspicuously dark Mare Moscoviense (right), Mandel’shtam Crater (far left limb) and, to its right, Papaleksi Crater; NASA image AS13-62-8923: Project Apollo Archive (Apollo Image Gallery), Public Domain, via Flickr

Apollo 13 imaged the far side’s Papaleksi Crater during a lunar flyby that placed the spacecraft behind the moon Wednesday, April 15, 1970.

Apollo 13 launched Saturday, April 11, 1970, at 19:13 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (2:13 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) from Florida’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 13 numbered as the Apollo space program’s seventh manned mission. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) designed the mission as the Apollo space program’s third lunar landing attempt. Apollo 13 was intended to establish Commander James Arthur Lovell Jr. (born March 25, 1928) and Lunar Module Aquarius Pilot Fred Wallace Haise Jr. (born Nov. 14, 1933) as the fifth and sixth persons to set foot on the moon while John “Jack” Leonard Swigert Jr. (Aug. 30, 1931-Dec. 27, 1982) piloted Command and Service Module Odyssey.

A cryogenic oxygen tank catastrophe reported during the third day of flight, Tuesday, April 14, at 03:08 GMT/UTC (Monday, April 13, at 10:08 p.m. EST), scrubbed the mission’s planned lunar landing. NASA switched the mission’s goal to a lunar flyby as part of a trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver for the spacecraft’s free-return trajectory to Earth. Apollo 13 passed behind the moon Wednesday, April 15, at 00:21:35 GMT/UTC (Tuesday, April 14, at 7:21 p.m. EST).

Papaleksi Crater is one of the lunar far side features imaged during the Apollo 13 spacecraft’s flyby. Images capture the crater at the horizon in oblique, northeast-looking views.

The impact crater is centered at 10.15 degrees north latitude and 163.95 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. As a northern hemisphere crater, Papaleksi Crater’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes extended to 11.66 degrees north and 8.63 degrees north, respectively. As an eastern hemisphere crater, its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 165.49 degrees east and 162.41 degrees east, respectively. Papaleksi Crater’s diameter measures 92.03 kilometers.

The NASA Image and Video Library website’s description of the Apollo 13 mission’s imaging refers to the crater as International Astronomical Union Crater No. 221. The designation reflects the crater’s identification prior to its formal naming. The IAU approved Papaleksi as the crater’s official name in 1970. The crater’s namesake was Soviet radio physicist and radio engineer Nikolai Dmitrievich Papaleksi (Dec. 2, 1880-Feb. 3, 1947).

The Apollo 13 mission’s image also includes Papaleksi Crater’s southern neighbor, Mandel’shtam Crater. Papaleksi lies on Mandel’shtam’s northeastern outskirts. Mandel’shtam is centered at 5.7 degrees north latitude and 162.39 degrees east longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes reach 8.7 degrees and 2.7 degrees, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes extend to 165.4 degrees and 159.37 degrees, respectively. Mandel’shtam Crater’s diameter measures 181.89 kilometers.

Mandel’shtam Crater’s namesake is Belarusian-Jewish Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandel’shtam (May 4, 1879-Nov. 27, 1944). As with its northeastern neighbor, Mandel’shtam received official name approval in 1970. Prior to its formal naming, the crater was identified as International Astronomical Union Crater No. 220.

Mare Moscoviense lies northwest of Papeleksi and Mandel’shtam. The dark lava plain is centered at 27.28 degrees north latitude and 148.12 degrees east longitude. As a northern hemisphere mare, its northernmost and southernmost latitudes register at 31.5 degrees north and 22.95 degrees north, respectively. As an eastern hemisphere lava plain, its easternmost and westernmost longitudes extend to 153.26 degrees east and 143.41 degrees east, respectively. Mare Moscoviense’s diameter spans 275.57 kilometers.

The IAU’s XIth General Assembly, held in Berkeley, California, from Tuesday, Aug. 15, to Thursday, Aug. 24, 1961, approved Moscoviense as the mare’s official name. The IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature website, which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, translates Mare Moscoviense from Latin into English as “Sea of Muscovy.”

The takeaway for Apollo 13’s imaging of the far side’s Papaleksi Crater during the spacecraft’s lunar flyby Wednesday, April 15, 1970, is that the crater and its neighbor, Mandel’shtam Crater, are clearly distinguishable at the horizon in the 50-year-old, black-and-white photographs.

Papaleksi Crater (green) and (left, immediately below) Mandel’shtam Crater: via USGS/IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Oblique, northeast-looking view of lunar far side, photographed April 1970 from the Apollo 13 spacecraft, shows conspicuously dark Mare Moscoviense (right), Mandel’shtam Crater (far left limb) and, to its right, Papaleksi Crater; NASA image AS13-62-8923: Project Apollo Archive (Apollo Image Gallery), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/;
Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-as13-62-8923;
Public Domain, via Defense Visual Information Distribution Service @ https://www.dvidshub.net/image/849284/apollo-13-mission-image-view-sea-muscovy-mare-moscovienseand-craters-papaleksi-and-spencer-jones;
NASA, Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/AS13-62-8923

Papaleksi Crater (green) and (left, immediately below) Mandel’shtam Crater: via USGS/IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/4583

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