Apollo 13 was the famous mission that never made it to the moon's surface because of a catastrophic malfunction on board, but the astronauts did return safely to the Earth. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, the Command Module Pilot was Jack Swigert, and the Lunar Module Pilot was Fred Haise. The mission launched on April 11th, 1970 and the Capsule safely landed in the ocean on April 17th, 1970.