Remembering Omega, Snoopy, and Apollo 13
April 17, 1970, will be forever etched in history, when the Apollo 13 mission led by astronaut James A. Lovell Jr. (on the pictured) was compromised by the explosion of one of the oxygen tanks, aborting the mission to go to the moon and changing the main objective to return the crew to earth safely.
When all electrical systems had to be turned off in order to ensure the crew’s survival in the Lunar Expedition Module (LEM), the crew had to turn to their analogue chronographs as a “critical backup” and it was through their Omega Speedmaster Professional that Lunar module pilot Jack Swigert was able to precisely control the 14 seconds it took to burn fuel to adjust the return route, while James Lovell guided the spacecraft using the Earth’s horizon as his main guide.
So precisely 52 years ago and 142 hours and 54 minutes after the launch of the Apollo 13 mission, LEM docked in the Pacific with all the crew safe, and all the rest is history.
On October 5 of that same year, Omega was recognized for its contribution to manned space missions through NASA’s “Silver Snoopy Award”. Since then, Omega has released three commemorative editions of its Speedmaster Professional with Snoopy, the last of which was in 2020 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, the details of which you can find here. Each of these watches is a tribute but also a timeless reminder of Omega’s precision and reliability in space exploration for nearly 60 years.
If you want to know more about the Apollo 13 mission, the origin of Snoopy’s connection with NASA and the other two commemorative editions of Omega Speedmaster Professional with Snoopy, we invite you to read this other article through this link.
