RIP...
Apollo 13 mission commander, astronaut Jim Lovell, has died. He was 97 years old.
"We are saddened to announce the passing of our beloved father, USN Captain James A. ‘Jim’ Lovell, a Navy pilot and officer, astronaut, leader, and space explorer," his family said in a statement on Friday.
Lovell died on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Captain Lovell was not selected in the original tranch of astronauts, but the second tranch. Interestingly, after he graduated from test pilot school, he became the lead for the Navy's F-4 Phantom program, and later flight instructor at NAS Oceana prior to his selection.
He originally flew on two Gemini missions, ironically both of which were rendezvous flights. When Apollo kicked off, he flew on Apollo 8, then was the MC on Apollo 13. And we all know what happened on that one...
He was also the first to use the now famous term- "Houston, we have a problem." His mechanical engineering and test pilot abilities came in handy as they used the LM as a 'lifeboat' to get back to earth after the O2 bottle exploded, by creative use of the scrubber packs to limit the amount of CO2, allowing them to return to earth alive.
Sadly, he got to circle the moon twice, but never got to land there...
May he rest in peace.
🙏