The world reacted today with a shocked "I knew it would have to happen sometime" to the Apollo 13 crisis. Some people were angry because men's lives had been risked in space. But all were concerned and followed the Apollo flight intently.

But all the bad luck traditionally associated with number 13 struck last night. A power failure crippled Apollo 13 less than 22 hours before its planned rendezvous with the moon, wiping out all chances for a landing and endangering the crew.

HOUSTON, April 13, 1970 (UPI) -- The Apollo 13 astronauts today blasted their crippled spacecraft onto a safe course home after narrowly escaping death in a mysterious explosion, possibly caused by meteoroids.

HOUSTON, April 13, 1970 (UPI) --When the Apollo 13 moon flight experienced electrical failure last night, Astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and John L. Swigert reported events calmly and matter-of-factly to Mission Control.

HOUSTON, April 15, 1970 (UPI) - The stricken Apollo 13 spaceship is slightly off course and its astronauts will miss the earth by 80 miles and soar off into a distant, fatal orbit if a steering correction is not made tonight or tomorrow, controllers reported today.

ABOARD THE IWO JIMA, April 17, 1970 (UPI) - America's brave but jinxed Apollo 13 astronauts came safely back to earth today, their stricken spaceship coaxed a quarter million miles home by the lander meant to have put them on the moon.