In apollo 13, how did they see past the command and service moduals from the lunar modual to see the earth?

Question

When I say that I mean wasn't the comand and service moduals block the view?

Answer 1

Assuming they depicted those scenes correctly in the movie (and I've not found anything to say they didn't but it is possible) then, obviously, their view of Earth was not blocked.

There was a point in the movie where the astronauts saw both a full moon and a full Earth out of the windows, and that was impossible given their location....so there was obviously a bit of artistic license taken in the particular views of both the moon and the Earth.

Answer 2

The CM did partially block the view from the LM, but not completely. Apparently the orientation they needed for the course correction burn still allowed them to look out the LM windows and past the CM to see the Earth.

Remember, the CM is docked to the top of the LM, but the LM windows look out and down from the LM, so the CM was not really that much in the way.

Answer 3

Remember, Apollo 13 was in space with a fully functional set of thrusters. With those the attitude of the the whole assemblage (command-service module and lunar module) could be rolled, yawed and turned completely around if necessary.

Answer 4

when they were going through reentry the CM disconnected from the SM and they got a view of Earth

Answer 5

After they sling-shotted around the moon, they fired their boosters to get back on track, thus enabling them to re-enter Earth's Orbit and allowing them to see Earth.