Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell Dies at 97

Jim Lovell, the legendary NASA astronaut who commanded the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission, has died at age 97. NASA confirmed he passed away August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Lovell was already a veteran of three spaceflights — Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8 — when he was selected to command Apollo 13 in 1970. The mission was meant to be the third crewed moon landing, but an oxygen tank explosion roughly 200,000 miles from Earth forced Lovell and crewmates John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. to abort the landing and focus on survival.

Lovell calmly reported to mission control, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” The crew used precise engine burns to loop around the far side of the moon and return to Earth, splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean three days later. The ordeal became known as NASA’s “successful failure” and was later dramatized in the 1995 film “Apollo 13,” in which Lovell was portrayed by Tom Hanks.

A member of NASA’s second astronaut class, the “New Nine,” Lovell became the first person to fly to the moon twice, also serving as navigator on Apollo 8 — the first mission to orbit the moon in 1968. His work on Apollo 8 helped capture one of history’s most famous space images, “Earthrise,” and inspired hope during a turbulent year in U.S. history.

Lovell retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973 after serving as deputy director of Johnson Space Center. His honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Remembered for his steady leadership under pressure, Lovell once reflected on Apollo 13’s crisis: “The miracle is something you have to do yourself, or have people help you.”

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