This is a great article.
Apollo 13, We Have a Solution
By: Stephen Cass
Rather than hurried improvisation, saving the crew of Apollo 13 took years of preparation
13 April 2005—"Houston, we've had a problem."
Thirty-five years ago today, these words marked the start of a crisis that nearly killed three astronauts in outer space. In the four days that followed, the world was transfixed as the crew of Apollo 13—Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert—fought cold, fatigue, and uncertainty to bring their crippled spacecraft home.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr05/1545