Why was the Apollo 13 mission considered a successful failure?
Apollo 13 was a failure in the sense that the mission did not land on the moon or achieve any of its mission goals. It was successful because it showed how people can work together to bring about a successful outcome to a situation that looked impossible. The feat of bringing home a crew of three in a spacecraft that was largely disabled through the rupture of its oxygen tanks and damaged electrical systems was a worldwide effort by various technical people, and created universal concern for the astronauts wellbeing.
