Jim Lovell, legendary commander of Apollo 13, dead at 97 – Jalopnik

Jim Lovell, the legendary commander of the fateful Apollo 13 mission to the moon, died on August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois at the age of 97. Acting NASA manager Sean Duffy said in a statement“NASA sends his participation in the Van Capt family. Jim Lovell … known for his humor, this unforgettable astronaut was nicknamed Jim by his fellow astronauts because he was quickly with a grin when he had a very funny comeback.“

James A. Lovell JR was born on March 25, 1928. He started his career with the navy as a kite and eventually became a test pilot. In that capacity, he was made program manager for the F4H Phantom Fighter Project. After four years of this, he was selected to become a NASA astronaut for the Gemini program in 1962.

As one of America’s space -time space men, Lovell has forged an inheritance by setting a number of remarkable scoops. On Gemini 7 he was part of the first crew ever who moored two maneuverable spacecraft in a job around the earth. As commander of Gemini 12, he successfully completed the entire Gemini project, so that NASA can switch to the Apollo program. His time on Apollo 8, the first time that astronauts used the Saturn V rocket, was one of the greatest moments of humanity, because Lovell and his crew members ever left the earth of the earth, and then immediately became the first people to ever travel (although not foot on) the moon.

Jim Lovell was even only one bad cough away from the first man ever put on the moon. He was the back -up commander for Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11, so if Armstrong had a cold, Lovell would have been one of the most famous names of history.

In 1970, Lovell had the opportunity to walk on the surface of another world when he became a commander of a future mission. Unfortunately, and famous, it was Apollo 13, who never reached its destination. The good news was that Lovell became the first man ever to travel to the moon twice. The bad news was, during the journey, the cryogenic oxygen system of the service module caused and exploded, so that the spacecraft was severely damaged.

Lovell and his two colleague astronauts, with the help of the flight control team in Houston, had to find out how they could lift an injured ship back to Earth. They eventually died (in space, without training for this scenario) the lunar lander in an emergency shelter and solved one problem after the other when they occurred. Due to determination and discipline, in one of the really biggest stories of SpaceFlight, all three Astronauts came home safely.

The entire saga was immortalized in the classic film ‘Apollo 13’ from 1995, with Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell in one of the most iconic roles of the actor.

Lovell never flew into space again. He went to the Harvard Business School a year later, and one can only imagine what it should have been like to do a test with that guy sitting next to you. Then he went to the private sector and joined a series of companies in senior executive positions; None of the companies had anything to do with lifting the ground.

After finally retiring, he moved to Lake Forest, Illinois. Not someone to sit inactive, he opened a restaurant full of his personal NASA -Memorabilia, although it has been closed since then. He remained in the city for the rest of his life.

Apart from his amazing career, Lovell’s legacy includes four children, eleven grandchildren and eight great -grandchildren. Of the 30 married astronauts in the Gemini and Apollo programs, only seven have never been separated; Lovell was one of them. A man who faithfully served his land and his family on land, air, sea and space, capt. Jim Lovell was and is still an inspiration in different generations.

And if you are wondering: Like many of his colleague -astronauts, Jim Lovell was a Corvette man. He can be seen on the National Corvette Museum.