Apollo 13 mission commander Jim Lovell dies at 97, remembered for turning potential tragedy into a successful rescue mission.
Who can forget that moment, when millions watched before the idiot box, as Apollo 13 mission hero Jim Lovell and two other astronauts splashed down back into the Pacific Ocean, a moment which has become one of the most iconic in the history of space travel.
Facts nobody knows:
Jim Lovell was the first man to go the moon, twice, but never actually landed.
NASA chief remembered Jim Lovell saying, “Lovell had helped the US space programme to forge a historic path.”
NASA said he had "turned a potential tragedy into a success" after an attempt to land on the Moon was aborted because of an explosion onboard the spacecraft while it was hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth.
Lovell was part of four spaceflights: Gemini VII, Gemini XIII, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, the latter became his legacy forever.
Even a film was made inspired by the incident, in 1995, Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks.
Lovell was born in Cleveland on March 25, 1928, and moved to Milwaukee with his mother during his adolescence.
The teenage Lovell has already developed his interests in space, attended the University of Wisconsin for two years before transferring to the Naval Academy and graduated in 1952.
Interesting, just three hours after graduation, he married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Gerlach.
In September 1962, Jim was selected to be a NASA astronaut, before serving as a Navy test pilot.
He was placed in a group of trainees for the Gemini and Apollo flights, and the group known as “Next Nine” also included Neil Armstrong.
1. Gemini VII: Jim Lovell flew on two notable Geminin missions: 14-day Gemini VII with Frank Borman.
2. Gemini XII with Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin in the final flight of the Geminin series.
3. Apollo 8 mission
Two years after, Jim, Borman and William A. Anders were the first crew to leave Earth’s orbit and travel to the Moon, and the mission circled around the moon after the Dec 21, 1968, takeoff.
4. Apollo 13 Mission: ‘Hudson, we’ve had a problem’!
Now came the most famous mission of Jim Lovell’s career, that has immortalized him in space history
In 1970, Lovell embarked on Apollo 13 along with John ‘Jack’ Swigert and Fred Haise, that was supposed to become NASA’s third moon landing.
However, less than an hour into their mission, At the 55 hours, 55 minutes and 4-seconds-mark, one of the spacecraft’s oxygen tanks exploded and another failed.
As Lovell and his crew members discovered the disaster from 240,000 miles from Earth, they contacted NASA space station in Houston, and he uttered the enduring famous phrase: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
Over the next three days, NASA executed a historic rescue as the astronauts faced severe shortages of water and electrical power, coupled with dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide.
After six days, in space, the Apollo 13 crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
A moment that was watched by millions before their television sets.
Although, Lovell never made a landing on the Moon; he never regretted it.
In one Interview, he said: “I realized that although I didn’t land on the moon and was disappointed, it was a triumph in a different direction, meaning getting people back from a certain catastrophe.”
Jim Lovell’s legacy as a space astronaut who always led from the front, will be cherished by generations.
