American astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 moon mission, which nearly ended in disaster, has passed away at the age of 97, NASA announced.
Hollywood star Tom Hanks played Lovell in the 1995 Ron Howard film “Apollo 13.” The film depicted a mission that was planned as the third human landing on the moon but went wrong when an explosion en route put the lives of the three astronauts in serious danger.
About 56 hours after launch, an explosion in an oxygen tank in the service module damaged the spacecraft and threatened the lives of the astronauts.
Lovell and his crew members, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, endured freezing, cramped conditions, dehydration, and hunger for three and a half days while working with mission control in Houston to devise solutions for the safe return of the damaged spacecraft to Earth.
“A successful failure” is an accurate description of what Apollo 13 was—because it was a failure in its initial mission—nothing was actually achieved,” Lovell told Reuters in a 2010 interview on the 40th anniversary of the flight. The final outcome was “a great success in the ability of people to take control of an almost certain disaster and turn it into a successful recovery.”
Lovell’s indelible message, “Houston, we have a problem,” will forever be known as the words that symbolized this dramatic and brave mission and became his life’s hallmark.
The Apollo 13 mission took place nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.
Over his career, he participated in four missions: Gemini VII, Gemini XII, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13.
Source: Srna Photo: Srna / Reuters