Three astronauts fly to the Moon. Something explodes. Now they must find a way to get home alive — and it really happened.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = H (an astronaut) · 2 = B (a rocket) · 3 = C (an explosion) · 4 = D (oxygen)
5 = A (an engineer) · 6 = F (cold) · 7 = E (a message) · 8 = G (to survive)
Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
It is April 1970. Three astronauts — Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise — fly towards the Moon. It is NASA's third trip there, so people are not very interested. TV channels do not even show it live. Two days into the flight, there is a big explosion. An oxygen tank breaks. The astronauts cannot land on the Moon anymore. Now they have only one job: get home alive.
1. Who is on the spaceship?
2. What happens two days into the flight?
1. Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise.
2. An oxygen tank explodes, so the astronauts cannot land on the Moon and must focus on getting home.
The astronauts move into a small part of the ship called the lunar module. It was built for two people, for two days. Now three people must live there for four days. It becomes very cold. The air also becomes dangerous, because there is too much carbon dioxide — the gas people breathe out — for such a small room. Engineers on Earth build a strange machine from a bag, some cardboard and tape, so that the air becomes safe again. It works.
1. Why does the small module become so cold and crowded?
2. What is dangerous about the air, and how do they fix it?
1. It was built for two people for two days, but now three people must live there for four days, so power and heating are turned off to save energy.
2. Carbon dioxide rises to a dangerous level because three people breathe in a small room; engineers build a machine from a bag, cardboard and tape so that the air is safe again.
The astronauts fly around the Moon and turn back towards Earth. Before they arrive, they must turn on their main spaceship again — but it is cold and completely dead. An engineer on the ground called Ken Mattingly practises turning it back on. Then he tells the astronauts exactly what to do, step by step. There is a long, frightening silence when the ship comes back through Earth's atmosphere, because nobody can talk to them for a while. Then, finally, the parachutes open. The astronauts land safely in the ocean.
1. Who helps the astronauts turn the ship back on?
2. What happens just before they land?
1. Ken Mattingly, an astronaut on the ground, practises the steps and tells the crew exactly what to do.
2. There is a long, silent moment because no one can talk to the ship as it comes through the atmosphere, so everyone waits nervously.
This story is full of reasons and results — things happened because of something, and that had a result, so something else happened next.
Read the sentence and choose the correct word.
1. The astronauts turned off the lights they needed to save power.
2. An oxygen tank exploded, the crew could not land on the Moon.
3. The cabin was very cold the heating was turned off.
1. because (gives the reason)
2. so (gives the result)
3. because (gives the reason)
Put the verb into the past simple.
1. The engineers (build) a new machine because the air was dangerous.
2. The ship (become) very cold, so the astronauts wore extra clothes.
3. Mission Control (send) new instructions because the crew needed help.
1. built
2. became
3. sent
Fill each gap with so or because. Read it aloud when you finish.
The astronauts were frightened the explosion was very loud. Their plan changed completely, they now had only one goal: to survive. The engineers on the ground worked all night they wanted to help the crew get home.
because · so · because
Use because to give a reason, and so to give a result.
Yes — almost all of it! This is one of the most true space films ever made.
In the film, an astronaut says "Houston, we have a problem." But the real astronaut, Jack Swigert, actually said "Houston, we've had a problem" — using the past tense, because the problem had already happened. Film writers changed it a little to make it sound better, and that new sentence became famous around the world.
The real Apollo 13 launched on 11 April 1970. The explosion happened on 13 April. Just like in the film, the astronauts really did move into the lunar module, and engineers on the ground really did build a strange machine — from a bag, some cardboard and tape — so that the air stayed safe. The astronauts landed safely in the ocean on 17 April 1970.
The film's other famous line, "Failure is not an option," was never actually said during the real flight. Writers invented it for a character based on a real engineer, Gene Kranz. But Kranz liked the phrase so much that he later used it as the title of a book about his own life. NASA called the whole mission a "successful failure": the astronauts did not reach the Moon, but they all came home safely.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Apollo 13 in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a normal flight to the Moon → a big explosion → moving into the small, cold module → engineers build a machine to save the air → turning the frozen ship back on → landing safely in the ocean.
Try to use some key words (astronaut, rocket, explosion, oxygen, engineer, cold, message, survive) and so / because.
The astronauts had one big plan — landing on the Moon. When the explosion happened, they had to give up that whole plan completely, just to survive. Do you think that was the right thing to do? Or could they have tried to save part of the original plan? Say why.
This flight was almost a disaster. Talk about danger and exploration.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: