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This Dec. 24, 1968, file photo made available by NASA shows the Earth behind the surface of the moon during the Apollo 8 mission. (William Anders\/NASA via AP, File)<\/p>\n
This Dec. 24, 1968, file photo made available by NASA shows the Earth behind the surface of the moon during the Apollo 8 mission. (William Anders\/NASA via AP, File)<\/p>\n
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Lovell and fellow astronauts Fred Haise and Jack Swigert received renewed fame with the retelling of the Apollo 13 mission in the 1995 movie \u201cApollo 13″ where actor Tom Hanks \u2014 portraying Lovell \u2014 famously said, \u201cHouston, we have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the first to leave Earth\u2019s orbit and the first to fly to and circle the moon. They could not land, but they put the U.S. ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Letter writers told the crew that their stunning pale blue dot photo of Earth from the moon, a world first, and the crew\u2019s Christmas Eve reading from Genesis saved America from a tumultuous 1968.<\/p>\n
The Apollo 13 mission had a lifelong impact on Lovell<\/p>\n
But the big rescue mission was still to come. That was during the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in 1970. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon. But Apollo 13\u2019s service module, carrying Lovell and two others, experienced a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its way to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending four cold and clammy days in the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat.<\/p>\n
”The thing that I want most people to remember is (that) in some sense it was very much of a success,\u2019’ Lovell said during a 1994 interview. ”Not that we accomplished anything, but a success in that we demonstrated the capability of (NASA) personnel.\u2019’<\/p>\n
A retired Navy captain known for his calm demeanor, Lovell told a NASA historian that his brush with death affected him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr., attends the 45th Anniversary of Apollo 8 \u201cChristmas Eve Broadcast to Earth\u201d event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Monday, Dec. 23, 2013. (AP Photo\/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)<\/p>\n Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr., attends the 45th Anniversary of Apollo 8 \u201cChristmas Eve Broadcast to Earth\u201d event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Monday, Dec. 23, 2013. (AP Photo\/Kamil Krzaczynski, File)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t worry about crises any longer,\u201d he said in 1999. Whenever he has a problem, \u201cI say, \u2018I could have been gone back in 1970. I\u2019m still here. I\u2019m still breathing.\u2019 So, I don\u2019t worry about crises.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovell had ice water in his veins like other astronauts, but he didn\u2019t display the swagger some had, just quiet confidence, said Smithsonian Institution historian Roger Launius. He called Lovell \u201ca very personable, very down-to-earth type of person, who says \u2018This is what I do. Yes, there\u2019s risk involved. I measure risk.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lovell spent about 30 days in space across 4 missions<\/p>\n In all, Lovell flew four space missions \u2014 and until the Skylab flights of the mid-1970s, he held the world record for the longest time in space with 715 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a member of really the first generation of American astronauts and went on to inspire multiple generations of Americans to look at the stars and want to explore,\u201d said Bruce McClintock, who leads the RAND Corp. Space Enterprise Initiative.<\/p>\n Aboard Apollo 8, Lovell described the oceans and land masses of Earth. \u201cWhat I keep imagining, is if I am some lonely traveler from another planet, what I would think about the Earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n That mission may be as important as the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, a flight made possible by Apollo 8, Launius said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in the history of space flight, I would say that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program,\u201d Gene Kranz, NASA\u2019s legendary flight director, once said.<\/p>\n Lovell was immortalized by Tom Hanks\u2019 portrayal<\/p>\n But if historians consider Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 the most significant of the Apollo missions, it was during Lovell\u2019s last mission that he came to embody for the public the image of the cool, decisive astronaut.<\/p>\n The Apollo 13 crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was on the way to the moon in April 1970, when an oxygen tank from the spaceship exploded 200,000 miles from Earth.<\/p>\n That, Lovell recalled, was \u201cthe most frightening moment in this whole thing.\u201d Then oxygen began escaping and \u201cwe didn\u2019t have solutions to get home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we were in deep, deep trouble,\u201d he told NASA\u2019s historian.<\/p>\n Four-fifths of the way to the moon, NASA scrapped the mission. Suddenly, their only goal was to survive.<\/p>\n Lovell\u2019s \u201cHouston, we\u2019ve had a problem,\u201d a variation of a comment Swigert had radioed moments before, became famous.<\/p>\n What unfolded over the next four days captured the imagination of the world.<\/p>\n With Lovell commanding the spacecraft, Kranz led hundreds of flight controllers and engineers in a furious rescue plan.<\/p>\n The plan involved the astronauts moving from the service module, which was hemorrhaging oxygen, into the cramped, dark and frigid lunar lander while they rationed their dwindling oxygen, water and electricity. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, they swung around the moon, aimed for Earth and raced home.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n