Apollo 13 mission commander, astronaut Jim Lovell, has died. He was 97 years old.
“We are saddened to announce the passing of our beloved father, USN Captain James A. ‘Jim’ Lovell, a Navy pilot and officer, astronaut, leader, and space explorer,” his family said in a statement on Friday.
Lovell died on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Captain Lovell was not selected in the original tranch of astronauts, but the second tranch. Interestingly, after he graduated from test pilot school, he became the lead for the Navy’s F-4 Phantom program, and later flight instructor at NAS Oceana prior to his selection.
He originally flew on two Gemini missions, ironically both of which were rendezvous flights. When Apollo kicked off, he flew on Apollo 8, then was the MC on Apollo 13. And we all know what happened on that one…
He was also the first to use the now famous term- “Houston, we have a problem.” His mechanical engineering and test pilot abilities came in handy as they used the LM as a ‘lifeboat’ to get back to earth after the O2 bottle exploded, by creative use of the scrubber packs to limit the amount of CO2, allowing them to return to earth alive.
Sadly, he got to circle the moon twice, but never got to land there…
May he rest in peace.
Yes, RIP Sir . I’ve met a few pilots , but never an Astronaut . Wish I could’ve met one . It is an ultra cool achievement . I drank a lot of Tang as a kid , because it was astronaut food , it made feel part astronaut . I’d never make the cut (even full of Tang) , not then , certainly not now , not ever . Strapped in a rocket , sitting on a boatload of fuel , blasting off into space , that is balls to the wall cool . Hand Salute !
+1
He gave a talk in Reno I attended. Excellent speaker and he definitely had command presence. Fair seas and clear skies.
All- Agreed! I was lucky to meet Shepard and Carpenter back in the early 80s at Pensacola when the museum had a function. Apparently, Lovell had quite the sense of humor…
My wife and I met him – briefly – at Cape Canaveral way back in 1995 while we were waiting for the tour we had booked to start.
My wife had commented “This is SO much better than Disney World!”, and he overheard and started a conversation. He autographed the copy of Lost Moon that we had just bought before we went our separate ways – him to his scheduled meeting, and us to our tour.
The master of coolness under duress. An example for many to emulate.
Sendarius- That is great!
WSF- Oh so true!