Jim Lovell

James Arthur Lovell, Jr., Captain, USN, Ret. (born March 25, 1928) is a former NASA astronaut, most famous as the commander of Apollo 13, which suffered an explosion enroute to the Moon but was brought back safely to earth by the crew.

Youth and early experience

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell's family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Juneau High School and became an Eagle Scout. His father died in a car accident when Jim was young and, for about two years, he resided with a relative in Terre Haute, Indiana. Later he attended the University of Wisconsin for two years, joining the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. He continued on to the United States Naval Academy and, after graduating in 1952, entered the United States Navy where he served in the Korean War. After spending four years as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center (under the call sign "Shaky") in Patuxent River, Maryland, Lovell was considered for the Mercury Seven but turned down due to a medical technicality later deemed less relevant. He was then selected in 1962 for the second group of NASA astronauts.

NASA experience

Lovell was the backup pilot for Gemini 4, and his first spaceflight was as pilot of Gemini 7 in December 1965, which was the first flight to spend a fortnight in space, and also conducted the first space rendezvous with Gemini 6A. Lovell was originally scheduled to be the backup commander of Gemini 10, but after the deaths of Elliott See and Charles Bassett, he became backup commander of Gemini 9A, and in November 1966 made his second flight into space as commander of Gemini 12. After these two flights, Lovell had spent more time in space than any other human.

He was then made command module pilot on the backup crew for Apollo 9 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He later replaced Michael Collins, the original command module pilot on Apollo 9, who needed to have surgery for a bone spur on his spine shortly before the Apollo 8-Apollo 9 crew swap. Along with Frank Borman and William Anders, Lovell flew on Apollo 8 in December 1968, the first manned mission to travel to the Moon.

Lovell was backup commander of Apollo 11 and was scheduled to command Apollo 14, but he and his crew swapped missions with the crew of Apollo 13, as it was felt the commander of the other crew, Alan Shepard, needed more time to train after being grounded for a long period. On April 11 1970, Lovell took off on Apollo 13 with Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, planning to land on the Moon along with Haise. But on April 13, an oxygen tank on the spacecraft exploded, causing it to lose oxygen and power. The mission was aborted, and using the lunar module's engine, oxygen and power, Lovell and his crew travelled once around the Moon and returned to Earth safely on April 17. Lovell was one of only three men to travel to the Moon twice, but unlike John Young and Eugene Cernan, he never walked on it.

His four flights made him the recordholder for time in space (over 715 hours) and had seen more sunrises from space than any human who had ever lived until the Skylab missions. It is also possible that he holds the record (with his Apollo 13 crewmates) for farthest distance a human has travelled from Earth.

After the US Navy and NASA

He retired from the Navy and the space program in 1973 and went to work at the Bay-Houston Towing Company in Houston, Texas, becoming CEO in 1975. He became president of Fisk Telephone Systems in 1977, and later worked for Centel, retiring as an executive vice president on January 1, 1991. Lovell, a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, later served as the President of the National Eagle Scout Association in the mid-1990's. He was also recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their prestigious Silver Buffalo Award.

He married Marilyn Gerlach in 1952 and they have four children - Barbara (born in 1953), James (1955), Susan (1958) and Jeffrey (1966).

Along with Jeffrey Kluger, Lovell wrote a book on the Apollo 13 mission, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. This book was the basis for the later Ron Howard movie Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks as Lovell. In order to prepare for the role, Hanks visited Lovell and his wife at their house in Texas and even went for a ride with Lovell in his private airplane. In the movie Apollo 13, Lovell has a cameo as the ship's captain on the recovery ship. He was initially offered to be the admiral of the ship, but Lovell stated "I retired as a captain and a captain I will be" and he was cast. He can be seen as the older gentleman shaking Tom Hanks' hand on the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima during the voice over by Tom Hanks.

In 1999, Lovell, along with his family, opened Lovell's of Lake Forest, a fine dining restaurant in Lake Forest, Illinois. The restaurant displays many artifacts from Lovell's time with NASA, as well as from the filming of Apollo 13. Lovell's son Jay is the executive chef.

Lovell also visits colleges and universities where he gives speeches on his experiences as an astronaut and businessman. He strongly urges students to get involved in science and the space program and he credits NASA in the 1960s with bringing much of the country together for a common goal.

Formal education

University of Wisconsin
United States Naval Academy (BS, 1952)
Test Pilot School, Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland (1958)
Aviation Safety School, University of Southern California (1961)
Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School (1971)

Awards and decorations

Captain Lovell's awards & decorations include:

Military Awards

Other Awards

Eagle Scout (1946) and Distinguished Eagle Scout (1976)
Harmon International Trophy (1966, 1967 and 1969)
Alpha Phi Omega Fall Pledge Class Namesake (1967)
Robert J. Collier Trophy (1968)
Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy (1969)
H. H. Arnold Trophy (1969)
General Thomas D. White USAF Space Trophy (1969)
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Légion d'honneur
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
FAI De Laval Medal & Gold Space Medals
National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal
Congressional Space Medal of Honor

7th Street in Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin is now called "North James Lovell Street".

Capt. Lovell is a Fellow in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a member of the prestigious Golden Eagles.

Bibliography

Apollo 13: Lost Moon ISBN 0671534645

Jim Lovell in Fiction

Lovell's book was used as a basis for the movie Apollo 13, in which Lovell was portrayed by Tom Hanks, although the physical resemblance is slight. (Lovell had personally wanted Kevin Costner, who resembled him more, to portray him.) Lovell had a cameo appearance at the end of the movie as the captain of the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima. (Lovell wore his actual US Navy uniform for filming. He was actually offered to play an admiral in the film, but he told producers "I retired as a captain; a captain I will be.") In the 1998 HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, Lovell was portrayed by Tim Daly. At right, Jim Lovell and Kevin Costner.

In the 2002 novel Ice, Jim Lovell and his wife both appear in a fictional memorial scene commemorating what everyone assumes is the deaths of two Apollo astronauts on the Moon after their LM ascent engine fails to fire. Captain and Mrs. Lovell are described as providing comfort to the bereaved wives and children of the two missing-and-presumed-dead astronauts--something they hadn't had to do since the Apollo 1 fire.

Legal dispute

In the July 25-31, 1996 issue of San José Metro News, Lovell was quoted as saying the following of Moon landing hoax believer Bill Kaysing:

"The guy is wacky. His position makes me feel angry. We spent a lot of time getting ready to go to the moon. We spent a lot of money, we took great risks, and it's something everybody in the country ought to be proud of."

Kaysing sued Lovell for libel. In 1997 a judge threw the case out of court (Plait 2002:173).

References

Philip Plait (2002). Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax". John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-40976-6.

External links

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