Apollo 13

Launched on 11 April 1970, Apollo 13 suffered an oxygen tank explosion on 13 April that crippled the Command Service Module 330,000 kilometres from Earth, transforming a routine Moon mission into history's most dramatic space rescue. Flight director Gene Kranz's team improvised a CO2 scrubber fix using plastic bags and duct tape, re-routed the trajectory using the lunar module Aquarius as a lifeboat, and returned all three crew members safely on 17 April, demonstrating that engineering ingenuity under pressure is its own form of heroism.