Mentor
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James Lovell, a member of humanity's first trip to the moon and commander of NASA's ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, has died at the age of 97.
Lovell's death on Thursday was announced by the space agency.
"NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy in a statement on Friday. "Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements."
A four-time Gemini and Apollo astronaut, Lovell was famously portrayed in the 1995 feature film Apollo 13. The movie dramatized his role as the leader of what was originally planned as NASA's third moon landing, but instead became a mission of survival after an explosion tore through his spacecraft's service module.
There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the place 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. His many voyages around Earth and on to so-very-close to the moon were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the course of being alive—and who better than Jim Lovell to make those voyages. On this night of a full Moon, he passes on—to the heavens, to the cosmos, to the stars. God speed you, on this next voyage, Jim Lovell.