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Why was Apollo 13's trajectory figure-eight shaped?

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Hi Yuval— This is a good question, so let's give it a try…. The trajectory of all of the Apollo missions was 'figure-eight' shaped— not just Apollo 13. read more

The trajectory of all of the Apollo missions was ‘figure-eight’ shaped— not just Apollo 13. The reason for the shape of the outbound (or ‘translunar’) trajectory was to make the spacecraft pass by the ‘leading edge’ of the moon rather than the ‘trailing edge’. read more

But at the end of the day, every mission flew this same basic shape. They all entered the Moon’s orbit from the leading edge side, never the trailing edge side. Apollos 11 and 12 started on a path that would have the option of the free return trajectory should something go wrong, then adjusted to get into orbit and land. read more

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