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Famed Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell has passed away at age 97. His legendary life and career touched many, even becoming a household name in 1970 when he radioed to Earth “Houston, we have a problem” and limped 250,000 miles home from the moon in a crippled spacecraft on Apollo 13.
NASA’s current acting Administrator Sean Duffy said Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois.
“NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades,” said Duffy. “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. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”
Lovell’s family released the following statement:
“We are enormously proud of his amazing life and career accomplishments, highlighted by his legendary leadership in pioneering human space flight. But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero. We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind.”
Lovell was a key player in NASA’s success reaching the moon
Tom Hanks of course would make Lovell famous to a new generation in the 1995 movie, but that wasn’t his only trip to the moon.
Apollo 13 was actually Lovell’s second moonshot. Lovell was a key player in NASA’s success reaching the moon. He also flew Apollo 8, the very first humans to fly to the moon. After all, someone had to prove humans could fly there at all, before Neil and Buzz could attempt the first landing.
Lovell and his crewmates on Apollo 8 were struck most by how beautiful Earth looked from the moon, and captured arguably one of the most iconic photos in history as they watched the Earth rise over the moon’s surface as they flew into “Earthrise”.
Lovell always looked back on that flight fondly, noting that they went to discover the moon, and instead they discovered Earth.
In total Lovell flew to space 4 times; twice with Apollo and twice before that on Gemini missions 7 and 12. Apollo 13 was his final space mission.
Lovell was a Navy fighter pilot
Before becoming an astronaut for NASA, Lovell was a Navy fighter pilot, with many achievement and awards for his service.
According to his NASA bio, Lovell had numerous aviator assignments, including a 4-year tour as a test pilot at Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland as Program Manager for the F4H “Phantom” Fighter.
He also served as Safety Engineer with the Fighter Squadron 101 at Naval Air Station, Oceana, Virginia.
Lovell logged more than 7,000 hours flying time, with more than 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.
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