But many NASA veterans believed it was a result of Administrator James Beggs’s superstition about the number thirteen, a fear that had become widely ingrained at the agency after the near catastrophe of Apollo 13—infamously launched at 13.13 Houston time and crippled by an explosion on April 13. So Beggs issued instructions for an entirely new numbering system. “I don’t care what you do,” he said, “but we’re not going to fly an STS-13.”
