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Jim Lovell, astronaut who commanded Apollo 13, dies at 97

Moon

Moon

Why so serious?
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James A. Lovell Jr., the American astronaut who commanded the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its lunar voyage in 1970 and shepherded it on a perilous four-day journey back to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded, an ordeal that transfixed the world, died Aug. 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97.


NASA announced his death in a statement, which did not cite a cause.


Apollo 13, which became the subject of a Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks as Mr. Lovell, was one of the U.S. space missions most firmly etched in the public consciousness after John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth in 1962 and the moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969.
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Sad news. A true hero.
 
RIP to one of those who pioneered our exploration of space. More guts than me, that's for sure!
 
Jim Lovell was on Gemini 7, which was the long duration flight. It was miserable to be up there for two weeks in a phone booth sized space. But he did it, and then was on Apollo Eight, which flew around the Moon. Apollo 13 may be the most famous, but it was hardly his only contribution to space travel. During the Apollo Eight mission he tested the sextant systems to confirm positions of the Space Craft. That proved that the system did work, and it would be good enough to use on following Moon Missions. In fact, he reached the theoretical limit of the system, as accurate as it was possible to be.
 
My daughter glommed onto the Apollo 13 movie. It came out when she was two years old but
I think she was eight or nine when she discovered it.
She must have watched that film thirty or forty times.
 
I'm not saying I ever wanted to be an astronaut, but I remember reading about Gemini 7. The astronauts orbited Earth sitting in a couch for two weeks. It sounded awful and seemed like the worst possible career.

Rest in Peace Jim.
 
Born in 57. Grew up glued to the TV for launches and splashdown in the ocean
A time when your eyes would open with a sense of wonder.
 
IMO, APOLLO 13 was the most incredible scientific accomplishment of the 20th century, perhaps of all time.

If someone had written a fictional screenplay suggesting such an event as Apollo 13, no studio would have bought it. It was just too ridiculous to believe. And Jim Lovell was at the controls on re-entry.

RIP, hero.
 
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