James Arthur Lovell Jr., the test pilot turned astronaut who helped prevent the Apollo 13 mission from ending in disaster, died on Thursday at the age of 97.
NASA confirmed Lovell’s death on Friday, noting that “from a pair of pioneering Gemini missions to the successes of Apollo, Jim helped our nation forge a historic path in space.” A naval aviator turned test pilot, his work at NASA over more than a decade helped the United States achieve major milestones. Although he would never walk on the Moon himself, Lovell would help make that achievement possible. And he would lead a “successful failure” in 1970, when he and two other astronauts worked tirelessly to safely return home after their rocket suffered potentially deadly damage.
“As the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 8, Jim and his crewmates became the first to lift off on a Saturn V rocket and orbit the Moon, proving that the lunar landing was within our reach,” acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said in the announcement of Lovell’s death. “As commander of the Apollo 13 mission, his calm strength under pressure helped return the crew safely to Earth and demonstrated the quick thinking and innovation that informed future NASA missions.”
Born March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, Jim Lovell grew up in Milwaukee and took to science. He had an interest in amateur rocketry even as a teenager, paving the way for his eventual career. He attended the University of Washington, studying in part under a Navy program to eventually become a pilot. He would enroll in the Naval Academy after two years of college. He graduated in 1952, and soon was serving in the Navy as an aviator on carriers. Shortly after graduating, he married Marilyn Gerlach. They would remain together for decades, until she died in 2023.
Portrait of the crew of NASA’s Apollo 8, Florida, December 1968. Pictured are, from left, command module pilot James Lovell, lunar module pilot William Anders, and Commander Frank Borman. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)
In January 1958, Lovell became a test pilot. As one of those daring pilots working with cutting edge aircraft, he pushed for a role in the early American space program. He was one of more than 100 pilots who applied to NASA that year. He wasn’t selected for the first crop of astronauts, the “Mercury Seven,” but made the cut for the “New Nine” who followed in 1962. After training, he took part in two Gemini missions. In 1965 he went to space for the first time as the pilot of Gemini 7. The crew set an endurance record for the number of orbits made around the Earth. A year later he’d be back in space as part of Gemini 12.
In December, 1968 Lovell would take part in Apollo 8, in the first crewed launch of a Saturn V rocket.Along with Frank Borman and William Anders, Lovell would become one of the first people to ever orbit the Moon, in a test run for an eventual landing. Anders would take the famous “Earthrise” photo on that mission. Borman died in 2023, while Anders died in 2024. For his part, Lovell often spoke of the impact of that mission, citing its emotional resonance.
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‘Successful failure’
The most famous and perhaps most important part of Lovell’s astronaut career was when a mission went wrong. Lovell would return to space again in 1970 as part of Apollo 13, this time as mission commander. Alongside command module pilot Jack Swigert and lunar module pilot Fred Haise, Lovell blasted off on April 11. Two days into the mission, an oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft exploded. Beyond the lost oxygen, the blast cost the mission much of its power source. After Swigert contacted mission control to report the incident, it was Lovell who would confirm things had gone bad: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
The crew rushed to the lunar module to survive, and then began trying to figure out a way home. Three men, on a rocket thousands of miles from Earth with limited power and oxygen, had to find a solution, using just the materials they had onboard, bouncing ideas and updates off of mission control. They jury rigged life-saving tools and Lovell would have to guide the ship in a slingshot around the Moon to ensure they stayed on course for reentry.
The Apollo 13 crew onboard the USS Iwo Jima after safely returning to Earth. Photo courtesy NASA.
On April 17, 1970 they made their reentry. After several minutes of radio silence, they reestablished contact with NASA and splashed down in the Pacific. The Navy recovered them. Soon after, the entire crew would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He is, at the time of his death, one of only three astronauts to travel to the Moon twice. With Lovell’s passing, Haise remains the sole surviving member of the Apollo 13 crew.
Lovell would later write about the experience. His book ‘Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13,’ served as the basis for the Oscar winning 1995 film ‘Apollo 13.’ Tom Hanks played Lovell. On Instagram, Hanks paid tribute to the astronaut, writing that “There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own.”
“Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy,” Hanks said.
Lovell left the Navy in 1973, becoming a high-level executive at several companies. He would eventually retire near Chicago with his wife. But he remained active in civic life, both in scouting and in the world of space exploration, joining other early astronauts for events. In a statement following his death, Lovell’s family called him their “hero,” saying that “We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind.”
