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\n Famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who commanded the harrowing Apollo 13 mission that was forced to abandon a lunar landing attempt in 1970, has died. He was 97.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lovell died on August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a NASA news release<\/a>. The cause of death was not immediately clear.\n <\/p>\n \n Lovell\u2019s family requested privacy but said, \u201cWe are saddened to announce the passing of our beloved father, USN Captain James A. \u2018Jim\u2019 Lovell, a Navy pilot and officer, astronaut, leader, and space explorer,\u201d in a statement<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe are enormously proud of his amazing life and career accomplishments, highlighted by his legendary leadership in pioneering human space flight,\u201d the family noted in its statement. \u201cBut, 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lovell was already well-known among NASA astronauts \u2014 having flown to space on the Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8 missions \u2014 before he was selected to command Apollo 13, which would have marked NASA\u2019s third successful crewed moon landing.\n <\/p>\n \n But during the ill-fated mission \u2014 which carried Lovell as well as astronauts John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. on board \u2014 an oxygen tank located on the crew\u2019s service module exploded when they were about 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) away from Earth.\n <\/p>\n \n Lovell delivered<\/a> the news to mission control, saying \u201cHouston, we\u2019ve had a problem.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n With the damage effectively taking out their power source and other life support supplies, the Apollo 13 crew had to abruptly abandon their trek to the lunar surface and use several engine burns to swing around the far side of the moon and put themselves on a course back toward Earth.\n <\/p>\n \n The three-person crew made a high-stakes splashdown return in the South Pacific Ocean about three days after the tank explosion, marking the conclusion of what has come to be known as the \u201csuccessful failure\u201d of the Apollo missions.\n <\/p>\n \n The ordeal was fictionalized in Ron Howard\u2019s 1995 film \u201cApollo 13.\u201d Lovell was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the film but made a brief cameo appearance as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the Navy ship that recovered the Apollo 13 crew after splashdown.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own,\u201d Hanks said in a statement posted to Instagram<\/a> on Friday. \u201cJim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lovell never made it to the lunar surface.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTwice a bridesmaid, never a bride,\u201d Lovell said with a laugh when speaking to CNN in 2008 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 8<\/a>, admitting that for years he had harbored resentment that his last mission had been a \u201cfailure.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It was only later on, Lovell said, that he fully realized what a success Apollo 13 had been, with the safe return of the crew to Earth.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt is mind-boggling in some respects,\u201d Lovell told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n In a statement released Friday, acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy credited Lovell\u2019s \u201ccalm strength under pressure (that) helped return the crew safely to Earth and demonstrated the quick thinking and innovation that informed future NASA missions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI really learned that you can\u2019t suddenly have a problem, and then just you know, close your eyes and hope there\u2019s a miracle coming on, because the miracle is something you have to do yourself, or having people to help you,\u201d Lovell told NASA\u2019s \u201cHouston, We Have a Podcast\u201d<\/a> in 2020.\n <\/p>\n To the moon and back<\/p>\n \n Lovell was part of NASA\u2019s second-ever astronaut class<\/a>, selected in September 1962 and nicknamed the \u201cNew Nine<\/a>.\u201d He became the first astronaut to make four spaceflights<\/a>, totaling more than 715 hours in space. And joining the Apollo 13 crew after having first served on Apollo 8, which intentionally circumnavigated the moon but did not land on its surface, made Lovell the first human ever to see the moon up close for a second time.\n <\/p>\n \n In an interview<\/a> with CNN in 2018 at age 90, Lovell recalled his adventure as Apollo 8\u2019s navigator. \u201cTo me, it was a mini Lewis and Clark expedition,\u201d Lovell said. \u201cWe were going someplace new to observe the far side of the moon, which had never been seen before.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Apollo 7 had marked the first crewed mission of the program in October 1968 after a launchpad fire killed three astronauts in January 1967. Apollo 8\u2019s launch followed a couple of months after Apollo 7, occurring just before Christmas 1968.\n <\/p>\n \n At one point Lovell extended his arm toward the window of the spacecraft. Earth appeared so small that he could cover it with his thumb.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI realized that behind my thumb, there were about (3.5 billion) people and everything I ever knew,\u201d Lovell said in the 2018 interview. \u201cI suddenly got a different feeling about life in general and my position in it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n “Instead of thinking they were going to live in the cosmos, they stop and think that is the blue planet. It’s fragile, it’s vulnerable. We’ve got to look after it, we’re all in this together. You get this oneness. So that has been called the most important photograph of the 20th century.” ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2400″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’\/><\/p>\n \n On Christmas eve, a broadcast of the astronauts sharing their view 70 miles above the moon reached an estimated 1 billion people in 64 countries. The three crew members each read a few lines from the Bible\u2019s Book of Genesis. Astronaut Frank Borman closed with, \u201cAnd from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The same day, Lovell\u2019s crewmate William Anders took the iconic \u201cEarthrise\u201d image of our home planet emerging from beyond the lunar horizon. The photo has captured the imaginations of generations of astronauts and been credited with helping to spur environmental movements.\n <\/p>\n \n Apollo 8 came at a time when the country needed hope, Lovell recalled in 2008. The year the mission launched included the assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, doubts of a victory in Vietnam after the Tet offensive, and showdowns between police and anti-war protestors during the Democratic National Convention.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cProvidence happened to put everything together at the end of the year to give the American public an uplift after what had been a poor year,\u201d Lovell said.\n <\/p>\n \n Anders, Borman and Lovell were recognized by Time Magazine<\/a> as \u201cMen of the Year\u201d in 1968 for their work on Apollo 8. The mission inspired wonder and excitement around spaceflight far beyond the halls of NASA.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe were flying to the moon for the first time,\u201d Lovell told CNN in 2008. \u201cSeeing the far side of the moon for the first time. Coming around and seeing the Earth as it really is \u2014 a small fragile planet with a rather normal star, our sun.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/s66-63540-large.jpg\")
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