Two days later, they were simply determined to make it back to Earth alive.<\/p>\n
The terrifying events of the doomed mission and the ensuing operation to bring the trio home is now widely known due to the 1995 Oscar-winning movie Apollo 13<\/a>. But surprisingly, it took a long time for Lovell\u2014who died Thursday at age 97\u2014his flight partners, and the ground crew involved to have their tale fairly told onscreen.<\/p>\n The rescue gripped the world in real time Friends and family of astronaut Jim Lovell, including his wife, Marilyn, watch news coverage of the Apollo 13 mission.<\/p>\n Two days after the launch of Apollo 13, an oxygen tank exploded<\/a>, depleting the astronauts\u2019 Command Module, named Odyssey, of power and oxygen. <\/p>\n \u201cAh, Houston, we\u2019ve had a problem,\u201d Lovell grimly remarked<\/a>, kicking off a dramatic rescue more than 200,000 miles from Earth that\u2014thanks to blanket news coverage through print, radio, and, most importantly, television\u2014captivated observers throughout the world. <\/p>\n Millions of Americans tuned into newscasts for updates, as Lovell, Swigert, and Haise battled perilous conditions such as freezing temperatures and rising carbon dioxide levels. On April 15, Pope Paul VI even led a prayer<\/a> for the trio\u2019s safety. <\/p>\n Flight Director Eugene Kranz and the crew at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston provided valuable assistance, calculations, and even helped the astronauts construct a makeshift CO2<\/a> filter using duct tape, cardboard, and a sock. With that aid, the astronauts finally splashed down on April 17 in the South Pacific Ocean. The New York Times reported<\/a> that as many as 40 million people watched their recovery roughly 600 miles from American Samoa.<\/p>\n People involved in the operation were feted with congratulations<\/a>. President Richard Nixon<\/a> appeared at the MSC (now known as the Lyndon B. Johnson<\/a> Space Center) to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Kranz and the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team. Nixon then did the same for the three astronauts at the Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, deeming the mission \u201csuccessful\u201d despite the aborted moon landing. \u201cWe are glad to be here, and we are glad to be a part of America,\u201d Lovell said<\/a>, according to NASA. <\/p>\n The dramatic story of Apollo 13 was told on film four years later\u2014and not without controversy.<\/p>\n The first Apollo 13 movie was almost entirely fictional <\/p>\n Universal Studios became the first to adapt the Apollo 13 rescue for the screen, but the effort resembled a daytime soap opera more than a riveting survival saga. On March 2, 1974, ABC aired that movie Houston, We\u2019ve Got a Problem<\/a>. That the title was a misquote of Lovell became an early sign of the creative liberties the film would take in adapting the story. <\/p>\n Starring Robert Culp and Sandra Dee<\/a>, the movie\u2014made with NASA assistance\u2014took the unusual approach of focusing on the workers inside Mission Control, not the Apollo 13 astronauts. <\/p>\n While NASA permitted filming inside its Johnson Space Center facilities and allowed real personnel to appear as extras, the agency stayed out of the project\u2019s creative development. \u201cWe did not and do not feel we should be arbiters of what\u2019s artistic or in \u2018good taste,\u2019 or not,\u201d NASA Public Affairs representative John P. Donnelly wrote in a memo<\/a>, adding he was hopeful the movie might \u201chumanize\u201d the space program. <\/p>\n It certainly did little to humanize the three astronauts, none of them are listed<\/a> as characters, and there are no scenes in outer space. Meanwhile, during the course of the movie, members of the team in Houston grapple with personal issues that played no role in the real rescue\u2014including a heart ailment<\/a> affecting Culp\u2019s character and a custody dispute involving another. <\/p>\n Lovell said the movie was \u201ca disservice\u201d <\/p>\n The studio explained the changes by saying the network would never have accepted a documentary-style project. It also emphasized the added disclaimers that to point out the movie\u2019s fictitious elements. \u201cWhat we did was take the basic facts and add additional drama on top,\u201d Universal executive producer Herman Saunders said in February 1974<\/a>. \u201cHow would you keep people in suspense, otherwise, when they all know the outcome of the story already?\u201d<\/p>\n Houston, We\u2019ve Got a Problem is largely forgotten by everyone except Lovell, who read the script and found it to be in poor taste and \u201ca disservice to the flight crew and ground personnel\u201d involved in the entire mission. \u201cIf one is to believe this story, it was obviously more traumatic to be in Mission Control than to be on board the crippled spacecraft,\u201d Lovell said<\/a>. \u201cThe Apollo 13 story in itself is an exciting adventure tale without the embellishments found in an afternoon serial program. If NASA wanted exposure of this nature, this story should have been based on a fictitious space flight.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie was the only noteworthy adaptation of the mission that Swigert witnessed. He died at age 51 of complications from bone cancer in late December 1982. Meanwhile, Lovell became determined to tell the real story of Apollo 13 and played a critical role in doing so 20 years later. <\/p>\n Lovell had direct involvement in 1995\u2019s Apollo 13<\/p>\n In 1994, Lovell collaborated with journalist Jeffrey Kluger on the autobiographical book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. This novel would serve as the inspiration for director Ron Howard<\/a>\u2019s eponymous 1995 blockbuster Apollo 13 about the doomed mission.<\/p>\n From the get-go, Lovell consulted on the movie to make it as realistic as possible. He even requested that actor Kevin Costner<\/a>, who bore a striking physical resemblance, play him onscreen. The role eventually went to Tom Hanks<\/a>, with Bill Paxton<\/a> playing Haise, Kevin Bacon<\/a> portraying Swigert, and Ed Harris in the critical part of Kranz.<\/p>\n Lovell personally helped Hanks prepare<\/a> for the movie, welcoming the Forrest Gump star to his home in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, and flying him in his personal airplane. Hanks also spent more than four hours in NASA\u2019s \u201cVomit Comet,\u201d the airplane used to train astronauts for rocket flight by alternating between negative gravity and 2Gs of force. <\/p>\n Unlike the maligned Houston movie, much more attention was devoted to the astronauts<\/a> and the realism of their spacecraft. Haise consulted with the sound effects team on alarm and equipment noises, while Space Works Inc. created replicas of the Apollo 13<\/a> command and lunar modules \u201cdown to every last rivet and piece of velcro.\u201d The attention to detail proved worthwhile, with Apollo 13 earning nine Academy Award<\/a> nominations, with wins in two categories. <\/p>\n Despite its further alteration of Lovell\u2019s famous quote\u2014changed to the now iconic \u201cHouston, we have a problem\u201d\u2014the movie ultimately earned the astronaut\u2019s approval. \u201cRon Howard really followed it down the line,\u201d Lovell said<\/a>, adding another director might have \u201cput this thing on Mars with David Bowie<\/a> or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovell approved of a 2024 documentary on the mission Jim Lovell speaks at a screening of Apollo 13 in March 2015.<\/p>\n Since the premiere of the Apollo 13 movie, the real mission has continued to be the subject of much interest and analysis. <\/p>\n Haise published his own memoir, Never Panic Early: An Apollo 13 Astronaut\u2019s Journey<\/a>, in 2022 that details his experience and career. Apollo in Real Time<\/a>, a website launched in 2020, allows viewers to see photographs and listen to Apollo 13 audio transmissions as they happened in 1970. <\/p>\n In 2024, Netflix released the documentary Apollo 13: Survival<\/a> that examined<\/a> the true \u201cknife-edge, life-or-death drama\u201d that unfolded with the help of archived recordings and testimony from people close to the mission. Lovell gave it his full stamp of approval.<\/p>\n![\"apollo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/marilynlovellphoto-66d8885980605.jpg\" "\\"The")
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<\/p>\n![\"astronaut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/astronaut-jim-lovell-speaks-before-the-screening-of-apollo-news-photo-1725465866.jpg\" "\\"Retired")
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