Why did Apollo 13 fail?

Apol lo 1 3 was a man ned space craft mission that was launched by NASA on April 1 4 , 1 9 7 2 . The mission was intended to be the third man ned mission to land on the Moon , but it was ab orted after an o xygen tank expl oded en route to the Moon , causing significant damage to the space craft . The crew was able to safely return to Earth , but the mission was de emed a failure . The cause of the o xygen tank explos ion was later determined to be a design f law in the tank ' s w iring , which caused an elect rical short circuit . </s>