Apollo 13 planned landing site. View of the Fra Mauro area on the Moon which was selected as a landing site for the Apollo 13 mission. The Fra Mauro area is a flat, vast highland centred at 17 degrees and 36 minutes west longitude and 3 degrees and 48 south minutes latitude. The pock marked surface shows numerous small impact craters. The Apollo 13 was launched on April 11th 1971 with a Saturn 5 launcher. During the third day of the mission one of the oxygen tanks onboard exploded forcing an emergency landing on the Earth.