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Jim Lovell was a US astronaut who commanded the Apollo 13 mission and famously reported “Houston, we had a problem”. He also piloted Gemini 7 and 12, and flew the first manned mission to the moon on Apollo 8. Lovell retired in 1973 and pursued a successful career in business, co-authoring the book Lost Moon. He holds numerous awards and achievements, including the Distinguished Flying Cross Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Jim Lovell, born James Arthur Lovell, Jr. in 1928, is one of many U.S. astronauts who helped start the succession of spaceflights in the 1960s and who may be best known for his command of the Apollo 13 mission and for the very famous reporting the mechanical problems on board that flight with his words “Houston, we had a problem”. Note that this line is usually misquoted, but you can hear Lovell’s recorded voice with the accurate statement. The Apollo 13 focus often overshadows Lovell’s other contributions to NASA and the rich life he lived before and after his career as an astronaut.
Lovell was born in Indiana, but the family moved to Milwaukee, where Lovell seemed to be well on his way to becoming an astronaut, a path not yet defined by the United States. He was commissioned an Eagle Scout and went to college first at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and then at the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1952. He also married his wife, Marilyn, in 1952, and their first of four children was born in 1953.
Cleaning arrangements were to be a short-lived proposition for Jim Lovell and his wife. Lovell immediately joined the US Navy upon graduation and served two years in the Korean War. He then began his career as a test pilot and in 1962 was chosen to become an astronaut for NASA.
Jim Lovell holds the record, until Skylab, of having recorded the longest period of time in space, more than 700 hours. His first flight for NASA was piloting Gemini 7, which he spent two weeks in space, and then piloting Gemini 12. In 1968, Lovell flew the first manned mission to the moon, Apollo 8, replacing Michael Collins who he had to leave his pilot post to be operated on.
Lovell was initially scheduled to fly Apollo 14 as his next mission. The Apollo 13 crew was not quite ready, so Jim Lovell and his Apollo 14 team took over the Apollo 13 mission instead, while the original Apollo 13 crew trained for Apollo 14 instead. Apollo 13 was a planned flight to the moon and landing on the moon, but mechanical problems early in the flight meant that the moon landing had to be scrapped, and there was excessive concern that the flight would return to home. Considerable work by Lovell and his crew and ground support in Houston helped develop a way to return the spacecraft to Earth, albeit under very risky circumstances. The six-day journey ended with the astronauts unable to accomplish their mission, including a walk on the moon, which Lovell had anticipated with great pleasure, but with at least the crew in possession of their lives.
In 1973, Jim Lovell retired from the US Navy and pursued a successful career in various companies, including attending the Advance Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1978. He co-authored with Jeffrey Kluger, the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 on which the Ron Howard film Apollo 13 is based. Lovell’s career continues to be diverse and also includes opening a restaurant in 1999, Lovells of Lake Forest. Many interviewers call Lovell unassuming despite his many impressive achievements and numerous awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross Award, the Legion d’honneur, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
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