James Lovell - Apollo 13 Commander

"I have seen the Earth as it truly is... a grand oasis in the vastness of space" - Jim Lovell



Jim Lovell's Official NASA portrait (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jim_Lovell_official_1966_portrait.jpg)

 

James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr was born on the 25th of March 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio to a Czech mother, who promptly moved the family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Juneau High School and 'Eagle Scout'. His father died in a car accident when Jim was only a small boy. As a child, he was interested in rocketry, and built small flying models. He married Marilyn Gerlach in 1952and they have 4 children: Barbara, James, Susan and Jeffrey.

He is surprisingly one of the lesser known astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, serving as a reserve commander for Neil Armstrong, despite his lengthy stay in space. In total, he has logged 29 days, 19 hours and 3 minutes in space, and is one of three to have been to the moon twice, and is the only one to have been there twice without landing. On the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell was part of the crew who piloted the module back to Earth after an oxygen cylinder exploded, leaving the ship with an extremely limited oxygen supply. By using the lunar module as a lifeboat, they used the 'free return trajectory' that they had left in orbit to return back to Earth, and thankfully they survived.

Captain Lovell was selected as an astronaut by NASA in September of 1962. He has since served as backup pilot for the Gemini 4 mission, and the background commander for the Gemini 9 flight, as well as the reserve commander on the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, mentionned previously.

Jim Lovell, at the point of writing this post, is now 85 years of age. His career has taken him above and beyond, literally. Logging almost 30 days in space, and is the only one to have been to the moon twice without landing, he is certainly an astronaut to be remembered.