Restoration of Apollo 13 command module Odyssey

Upon splashdown, NASA recovered the Apollo 13 command module Odyssey – the craft housing the mission’s astronauts during their ascent and decent from Earth – from the ocean’s surface on April 17, 1970. Due to problems that plagued Apollo 13 and its crew, the mission was considered a “successful failure” and Odyssey was disassembled and its parts shipped to museums, manufacturers and space centers across the world.

Years later, the Cosmosphere accepted the task of retrieving Odyssey’s 80,000 missing parts and restoring the spacecraft back to its original post-flight condition – a 12-year endeavor. The craft was restored in the Hall of Space Museum by the Cosmsophere’s craftsmen, in full view of museum visitors.

Upon completion of the Apollo 13 project, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum granted the Cosmosphere a permanent loan to house the spacecraft. Odyssey is now on public display in the Cosmosphere’s Apollo Gallery in the Hall of Space Museum.