By Don Babwin | Related Press
CHICAGO — James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped flip a failed moon mission right into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97.
Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA stated in a press release on Friday.
“Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount,” NASA stated. “We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”
Certainly one of NASA’s most traveled astronauts within the company’s first decade, Lovell flew 4 occasions — Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 — with the 2 –——————————- riveting the oldsters again on Earth.
In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the primary to depart Earth’s orbit and the primary to fly to and circle the moon. They might not land, however they put the U.S. forward of the Soviets within the area race. Letter writers advised the crew that their gorgeous pale blue dot picture of Earth from the moon, a world first, and the crew’s Christmas Eve studying from Genesis saved America from a tumultuous 1968.
However the huge rescue mission was nonetheless to come back. That was through the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in April 1970. Lovell was alleged to be the fifth man to stroll on the moon. However Apollo 13’s service module, carrying Lovell and two others, skilled a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its method to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending 4 chilly and clammy days within the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat.
”The factor that I would like most individuals to recollect is (that) in some sense it was very a lot of a hit,” Lovell stated throughout a 1994 interview. ”Not that we achieved something, however a hit in that we demonstrated the aptitude of (NASA) personnel.”
A retired Navy captain identified for his calm demeanor, Lovell advised a NASA historian that his brush with demise did have an effect on him.
“I don’t worry about crises any longer,” he stated in 1999. Every time he has an issue, “I say, ‘I could have been gone back in 1970. I’m still here. I’m still breathing.’ So, I don’t worry about crises.”
And the mission’s retelling within the well-liked 1995 film “Apollo 13” introduced Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert renewed fame — thanks partly to Lovell’s film persona reporting “Houston, we have a problem,” a phrase he didn’t precisely utter.
Lovell had ice water in his veins like different astronauts, however he didn’t show the swagger some had, simply quiet confidence, stated Smithsonian Establishment historian Roger Launius. He known as Lovell “a very personable, very down-to-earth type of person, who says ‘This is what I do. Yes, there’s risk involved. I measure risk’.”
In all, Lovell flew 4 area missions — and till the Skylab flights of the mid-Seventies, he held the world document for the longest time in area with 715 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds.
Aboard Apollo 8, Lovell described the oceans and land plenty of Earth. “What I keep imagining, is if I am some lonely traveler from another planet, what I would think about the Earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not,” he remarked.
That mission could also be as necessary because the historic Apollo 11 moon touchdown, a flight made potential by Apollo 8, Launius stated.
“I think in the history of space flight, I would say that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program,” Gene Kranz, NASA’s legendary flight director, as soon as stated.
But when historians think about Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 essentially the most important of the Apollo missions, it was throughout Lovell’s final mission — immortalized by the favored movie starring Tom Hanks as Lovell — that he got here to embody for the general public the picture of the cool, decisive astronaut.
The Apollo 13 crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was on the best way to the moon in April 1970, when an oxygen tank from the spaceship exploded 200,000 miles from Earth.
That, Lovell recalled, was “the most frightening moment in this whole thing.” Then oxygen started escaping and “we didn’t have solutions to get home.”
“We knew we were in deep, deep trouble,” he advised NASA’s historian.
4-fifths of the best way to the moon, NASA scrapped the mission. All of the sudden, their solely objective was to outlive.
Lovell’s “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” a variation of a remark Swigert had radioed moments earlier than, turned well-known. In Hanks’ model, it turned “Houston, we have a problem.”
What unfolded over the following 4 days captured the creativeness of the nation and the world, which till then had largely been detached about what appeared a routine mission.
JLOVELLCaptain James Lovell
The Apollo 13 astronauts are reunited with their wives in Honolulu, Hawaii, after their protected return to Earth, twenty third April 1970. Pictured listed here are mission commander Jim Lovell and his spouse Marilyn. (Picture by Harry Benson/Day by day Categorical/Getty Photos)
US President Richard Nixon meets the Apollo 13 astronauts in Honolulu, Hawaii, after their protected return to Earth, twenty third April 1970. From left to proper (entrance row) Fred Haise, Jim Lovell, Richard Nixon (1913 – 1994) and Jack Swigert (1931 – 1982). (Picture by Harry Benson/Day by day Categorical/Getty Photos)
On this April 11, 1970 file picture, Apollo 13 commander James A. Lovell Jr., foreground, speaks throughout a information convention in Cape Kennedy, Fla. earlier than the spacecraft launched on its ill-fated journey to the moon. At heart is astronaut Fred Haise. (AP Picture)
FILE – From left to proper, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell Jr. collect close to their spacecraft on the Museum of Science and Trade in Chicago, In poor health., the place the astronauts are celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of their six-day mission to enter the lunar ambiance and orbit the moon. Dec. 10, 1993. Retired Maj. Gen. Anders was killed Friday, June 7, 2024, when the airplane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. (AP Picture/John Swart, File)
Circa Sixties: NASA astronauts Mike Collins and Jim Lovell at Ames for coaching actions within the Apollo Midcourse Steerage and Navigation Simulator. Collins and Lovell have been among the many New 9 astronauts NASA chosen and President John F. Kennedy introduced in 1962 for the Apollo and Gemini area missions. (Picture Courtesy: NASA)
CHICAGO – FEBRUARY 11: Actor Tom Hanks (L) and Captain James A. Lovell Jr. share amusing whereas leaving the stage after unveiling a portray that was introduced to Lovell when he accepted the Lincoln Management prize throughout a dinner honoring modern world leaders February 11, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. Lovell is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of piloting the Apollo 13 mission.. (Picture by Frank Polich/Getty Photos)
WASHINGTON – JULY 20: (L-R) Astronauts, Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7, James Lovell, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, David Scott, Apollo 9 and Apollo 15, Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11, Charles Duke, Apollo 16, Thomas Stafford, Apollo 10 and Eugene Cernan, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17, take part in a information convention at NASA Headquarters on July 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Immediately marks the fortieth anniversary of the primary moon touchdown and moon on stroll by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin which passed off on July 20, 1969. (Picture by Mark Wilson/Getty Photos)
WASHINGTON – NOVEMBER 13: Apollo 8 crew member James Lovell speaks throughout a reside taping of a NASA TV program on the Newseum November 13, 2008 in Washington, DC. The previous astronauts participated in a dialogue on the December 1968 lunar orbital mission and the way the success of Apollo 8 contributed to the general moon touchdown effort that culminated simply six months later with Apollo 11 and to commemorate NASA’s fiftieth anniversary. (Picture by Alex Wong/Getty Photos)
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JLOVELLCaptain James Lovell
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With Lovell commanding the spacecraft, Kranz led a whole bunch of flight controllers and engineers in a livid rescue plan.
The plan concerned the astronauts transferring from the service module, which was hemorrhaging oxygen, into the cramped, darkish and frigid lunar lander whereas they rationed their dwindling oxygen, water and electrical energy. Utilizing the lunar module as a lifeboat, they swung across the moon, aimed for Earth and raced dwelling.
By coolly fixing the issues below essentially the most intense strain conceivable, the astronauts and the crew on the bottom turned heroes. Within the means of turning what appeared routine right into a life-and-death wrestle, all the flight group had created considered one of NASA’s best moments that ranks with Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s walks on the moon 9 months earlier.
“They demonstrated to the world they could handle truly horrific problems and bring them back alive,” stated Launius.
The lack of the chance to stroll on the moon “is my one regret,” Lovell stated in a 1995 interview with The Related Press for a narrative on the twenty fifth anniversary of the mission.
President Invoice Clinton agreed when he awarded Lovell the Congressional Area Medal of Honor in 1995. “While you may have lost the moon … you gained something that is far more important perhaps: the abiding respect and gratitude of the American people,” he stated.
Lovell as soon as stated that whereas he was upset he by no means walked on the moon, “The mission itself and the fact that we triumphed over certain catastrophe does give me a deep sense of satisfaction.”
And Lovell clearly understood why this failed mission afforded him much more fame than had Apollo 13 achieved its objective.
“Going to the moon, if everything works right, it’s like following a cookbook. It’s not that big a deal,” he advised the AP in 2004. “If something goes wrong, that’s what separates the men from the boys.”
James A. Lovell was born March 25, 1928, in Cleveland. He attended the College of Wisconsin earlier than transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. On the day he graduated in 1952, he and his spouse, Marilyn, have been married.
A check pilot on the Navy Take a look at Middle in Patuxent River, Maryland, Lovell was chosen as an astronaut by NASA in 1962.
Lovell retired from the Navy and from the area program in 1973, and went into personal enterprise. In 1994, he and Jeff Kluger wrote “Lost Moon,” the story of the Apollo 13 mission and the premise for the movie “Apollo 13.” In one of many ultimate scenes, Lovell appeared as a Navy captain, the rank he really had.
He and his household ran a now-closed restaurant in suburban Chicago, Lovell’s of Lake Forest.
His spouse, Marilynn, died in 2023. Survivors embrace 4 youngsters.
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AP Science Author Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
Initially Revealed: August 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM PDT
