Astronaut who guided Apollo 13 safely back to Earth dies aged 97

Astronaut Jim Lovell, who safely returned the Apollo 13 mission to Earth in 1970, died at the age of 97.

NASA, hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Earth, because of an explosion in the spacecraft, the attempt to land on the moon was canceled after the cancellation “transformed a potential tragedy into success”, he said.

Tens of millions of people watched on TV as Lovell and the other two astronauts and spread back to the Pacific Ocean, which became one of the most iconic in the history of space travel.

Lovell, who was also part of the Apollo 8 mission, was the first person to go to the moon twice – but he never actually descended.

NASA President Sean Duffy said Lovell helps the US space program to “create a historical way”.

In a statement, Lovell’s family said: “We will miss the way of shaking optimism, the understanding of humor, and the way we can make each of us feel impossible. It was really a genre.”

Tom Hanks who played Lovell in 1995 Apollo 13He called the astronot “one of the people who dare, imagined and lead others to places where we will not go on our own”.

Hanks said in a statement on Instagram, Lovell’s journey, “for wealth or celebrity, but for fueling the course of difficulties to survive,” he said.

One Saturday, a 16 -year -old boy pulled a heavy, three -meter tube in the middle of a large area in Wisconsin.

He convinced his science teacher to help him make a temporary rocket. Somehow, gunpowder – potassium nitrate, sulfur and coal managed to take hands to materials.

He pulled the helmet of a welder for protection. He pack with dust, shot a match and ran like hell.

80 feet rose into the air and exploded. If the chemicals were packaged in a slightly different way, it would be blown into the pieces.

For Jim Lovell, it was more than a childish joke.

Rocket would be an American hero when he realized his dream of becoming a scientist. But it wouldn’t be easy.

James Arthur Lovell JR was born on March 25, 1928 – just a year after Charles Lindbergh made his historical trip throughout the Atlantic.

“Men are like dinosaurs or planes,” he said. “I was a very plane child.”

At the age of five, his father died in a traffic accident.

His mother Blanche worked every hour, struggling to keep the food on the table. The university was far beyond financial access.

The answer was the US navy, which was hungry for new pilots after the Second World War. It wasn’t to build rockets, but at least it involved.

Lovell enrolled in a program that sent him to the expenses of the army while training as a war pilot.

In two years, he gambled and hoped to work with his beloved rockets, he moved to the Navy Academy in Annapolis in the Gulf of Chesapeake.

This was a lucky decision.

A few months later, the Korean war broke out and the former apprentice pilots were sent to South East Asia. Many of them have never finished their training.

In Annapolis, marriage was banned and girlfriends broke courage. The navy did not want its middle ships to waste their time on such frivolites.

But Lovell had a lover. Marilyn Gerlach was a high school girl whom she was ashamed of Prom.

Women were not allowed campus and excursions outside were limited to 45 minutes. Somehow the relationship survived.

Just a few hours after his graduation in 1952, the newly assigned lieutenant Lovell married him.

Until Marilyn’s death in 2023, they would have been together for more than 70 years.

He did his best to advertise the love of rocketism.

His thesis at the Navy Academy was unheard of liquid -fuel engines. After graduation, this pioneer hoped to specialize in the new technology.

But the navy had other ideas.

Lovell was appointed to a group of Flying Banshee Jets from ships at night. It was a high -wire work with white articles, just suitable for Daredevils. But it wasn’t enough for Lovell.

He applied to NASA in 1958.

The project was Mercury, America’s attempt to place a man around the world. Jim Lovell was one of the 110 test pilots that were considered for the selection, but a temporary liver condition paid.

Four years later he tried again.

In June 1962, after having exhausted medical tests, NASA announced “New Nine”. These would be the men who would fulfill President Kennedy’s commitment to putting American boots on the moon.

It was the most distinguished group of man gathered. Neil Armstrong, John Young and Jim Lovell by fulfilling his childhood dream.

He was ready three years later.

The first trip to space was at the two -person twins 7. Lovell and other astronaut Frank Boorman a seven and egg breakfast ate and exploded.

Mission: To find out if men can survive for two weeks in space. If not, the moon could not be reached.

When the durability recording was completed, Lovell’s next flight was under the command of Gemini 12, as well as Aldrin, the Space Rookie Greek.

This time they proved that one could work outside a spacecraft. Aldrin strangely entered the void and spent five hours by photographing the star fields.

Now for the moon itself.

The crew of the Apollo 8 would be the first person to enter the gravity of another celestial body beyond the low earth orbit.

It was NASA’s most dangerous task.

The Saturn V rocket, which attracted Lovell, Borman and William Anders from the atmosphere of 25,000Mph (40.233km/s), was very large – three times larger than anything seen in the Gemini program.

As a navigator, Lovell took a sex to get star readings if computers fail and have to find their own ways home.

They succeeded sixty -eight hours after taking off.

The engines fired and Apollo 8 quietly shifted behind the moon. When the radio signal for mission control fell and then failed, the men felt a crack in their headphones.

The growing astronauts fixed themselves to the windows, the first people who saw the distant side of our nearest heavenly neighbor. And then, an incredible landscape from the progressive horizon.

“Earthrise,” the pale boot.

“Take the camera, fast,” Lovell said.

Christmas was 1968.

America remained in Vietnam and at home in civilian unrest. But at that moment, humanity seemed united.

The people of the world have seen their planets as the astronauts have seen – fragile and beautiful shining in the desolation of space.

Lovell has read to the people of the world from Genesis, the basis of most of the great religions of the world.

“And he sought the darkness of God and the darkness he was looking for at night. And it was the first day of the evening and the morning.”

For him, it was an image that changed our world forever. He put his thumb in the window and the whole world disappeared behind him. It was the most active experience of his life.

As the spacecraft reappeared from the darkness, Lovell announced the first good news. “Please be recommended,” he said, “There’s a Santa Claus.”

At that moment, a man in the Blue Rolls-Royce, 239,000 miles, went out of Lovell’s house in Houston.

He passed by dozens of journalists who camped outside and gave Marilyn a box.

He opened the stars patterned paper handkerchief and took out a mink jacket. “Happy Christmas,” the card that came with him “and love from the man on the moon.”

They rose as an astronaut and the celebrities landed. The people of the world followed every movement on television.

Time Magazine’s cover had Kicker Cassette crossings, congress honors and a place. And they didn’t set foot on the moon.

This honor went to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

A year later, Kennedy’s dream was fruit after his death. A small step was taken and humanity took the giant splash. He had done his new nine works.

In April 1970, Jim Lovell was the turn. Fortunately, Apollo 13 crew did not believe in unlucky numbers.

Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, Armstrong and Aldrin were determined and determined to follow the moon surface. But things went bad.

When they noticed low pressure in a hydrogen tank, they were over 200,000 miles of the world and closed to their targets. There was a need to mix to stop the settlement of super cold gas in the layers.

Swigert hit the key. It should have been a routine procedure, but the command module Odyssey, chill. Oxygen pressure fell and the power was closed.

Orum I believe we have a problem here, Swigert said. “Houston, we had a problem.”

It was one of the biggest shortcomings of all time. The crew had a big problem – a dramatic explosion had disabled the crafts.

Haise and Lovell worked crazy to prevent the Lunar module to prevent Aquarius.

It should not be used until it reached the moon. There was no heat shield, so it could not be used to re -enter the world’s atmosphere. But he can keep them alive until he gets there.

The world stopped breathing and watched.

For the second time, Jim Lovell brought the world together. For the first time for Earthrise, the second is to witness the struggle for survival.

“For four days, Mar Marilyn said,” I didn’t know if I was a wife or widow. “

Temperatures fell to frost, food and water rationalized. It was days for them to return to the eaves of the world’s atmosphere. They returned to Odyssey and prayed for not being damaged by the heat shield.

Radio silence, which accompanied the re -entry, lasted much longer than usual. Millions of people watched on TV, many of them were convinced that everything was lost.

After six painful minutes, Jack Swigert’s voice cut off silence.

The team on the ground, the parachutes were deployed and the crew fell safely until the breath held.

The task was NASA’s biggest failure and undoubtedly the best time.

Lovell retired from the navy in 1973 and chose a quiet life, worked for Mr.-Houston Towing Company, made speeches, and served as the President of the National Kartal Scout Association.

Lost Moon: Apollo 13’s Dangerous Journey book became the famous 1995 film in which Tom Hanks starred as Jim Lovell.

For the film, the director asked him to dress as an admiral. When the crew was saved from the sea, it was for a Kameo scene stuck with Hanks.

But the former American hero did not have it.

Jim Lovell had gone to the moon twice, witnessed the world and avoided a cold death in space – and I didn’t see any reason to burn him wrong. to continue.

The old navy took off the uniform, dust and wore it for the appearance of Cameo.

“I retired as a captain,” he insisted. “And I will be a captain.”