Despite Apollo 13's Lead Flight Director Gene Kranz's promise of "We will never surrender. We will never give up a crew," Apollo 13's mission came to a tragic end 5 days later on April 18th, when after a dramatic last minute effort to save the astronauts failed and the Lunar Command Module lost power and headed into deep space for what was thought to be eternity. Tragically, NASA simulations at the time miscalculated the trajectory and one month later on May 20th the LCM plunged into Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated.