Apollo 13 stands poised for launch from the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. Photo: NASA/KSC

At Cape Kennnedy, everything is now in order for the planned launch of America's third moonlanding mission.

For the first time, an Apollo team is getting a normal night's sleep before setting off for the moon. Because the launch is not until shortly after 2pm, Cape Kennedy time, Lovell, Haise and Swigert can sleep on until about 9am instead of being woken at the usual 3am for medical examinations before donning their spacesuits.

Kenneth Mattingly, displaced as Command Pilot because he is likely to develop German measles, has been asked to do Swigert's former job as CAPCOM -- that is Capsule Communicator, the man who talks from Mission Control to the spacecraft throughout the mission.

Captain Lovell will be the first man to make a fourth spaceflight, and it should bring his present total of 570 hours in space to over 800 -- a figure unlikely to be surpassed by any astronaut for many years to come. But he has said that, with manned flights few and far between, and with many younger astronauts queuing up for them, this will be his last.

After next Thursday's hazardous landing in the uplands are known as Fra Mauro, it's hoped he and Haise will be able to collect moonrocks 5,000 million years old, bore holes in the surface 10 feet deep, and climb a crater rim several hundred feet in height.