Astronaut Jim Lovell, most well-known for his role as Apollo 13 commander, died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97.
Lovell logged 715 hours in space across four missions, including Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13.
“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,” Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said.
Lovell’s first moon mission took place aboard Apollo 8 in 1968, the first crewed lunar orbit in history. He is widely remembered as commander of the Apollo 13 mission in April 1970. An oxygen tank explosion crippled the spacecraft nearly 200,000 miles from Earth. The crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat in a four-day return, hailed as a “successful failure” for its ingenuity and safe outcome.
The mission’s story was retold in the 1995 film Apollo 13, with Tom Hanks portraying Lovell. Although he later said missing the chance to walk on the moon was his “one regret” (AP), he received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and lasting public admiration. Lovell’s wife, Marilyn, died in 2023. Survivors include four children. His family said in a statement that he was “our hero” and said they would miss “his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible.”
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