The Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration (NASA) in the US has confirmed that one in every of its most well-known house explorers, Jim Lovell, has died at age 97.
In a statement on Friday, Transportation Secretary and NASA administrator Sean Duffy confirmed that Lovell handed away at his house in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Lovell is maybe most well-known for his 1968 voyage on the Apollo 8 house flight, which made historical past as the primary voyage to take human beings previous the Earth’s gravitational subject and across the moon.
For that flight, which took greater than six days to finish, Lovell served as command module pilot, alongside astronauts Frank Borman II and William Anders. They circled the moon 10 instances earlier than returning to Earth.
Lovell was the final surviving crew member from that flight.
He additionally was a key determine on the doomed 1970 Apollo 13 flight, which was meant to conduct the third lunar touchdown.
However the flight met catastrophe when its oxygen tank exploded in house, endangering all on board. It was unclear whether or not Lovell, essentially the most skilled astronaut on the flight, and his two colleagues, John Swigert Jr and Fred Haise Jr, would return from the voyage alive.
As mission commander, nonetheless, Lovell helped steer their lunar module again to Earth in a death-defying splashdown. It was his final house flight, and he has been praised for his calm underneath strain.
“Jim’s character and steadfast braveness helped our nation attain the Moon and turned a possible tragedy into a hit,” Duffy stated.
“From a pair of pioneering Gemini missions to the successes of Apollo, Jim helped our nation forge a historic path in house that carries us ahead to imminent Artemis missions to the Moon and past.”
We’re saddened by the passing of Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13 and a four-time spaceflight veteran.
Lovell’s life and work impressed tens of millions. His braveness underneath strain helped forge our path to the Moon and past—a journey that continues in the present day. https://t.co/AjT8qmxsZI pic.twitter.com/jBlxzgrmSk
— NASA (@NASA) August 8, 2025
Identified by the nickname Smilin’ Jim, Lovell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928.
He started his aviation profession within the Fifties as a part of the US Navy, the place he accomplished a four-year tour of obligation as a check pilot in Maryland. Throughout his naval service, he logged greater than 7,000 hours of flying time.
Then, in 1962, he was chosen by NASA to be an astronaut. His first house flight passed off as a part of the Gemini challenge, a sequence of flights designed to enhance house journey so as to pave the way in which for the later Apollo moon missions.
At first, Lovell was a backup pilot for Gemini 4. However he bought his break with the Gemini 7 mission in 1965, which was solely the twelfth crewed flight the US had despatched to house by that time.
He was paired with Borman, his future Apollo 8 colleague, for that launch, and collectively, they made a rendezvous in house with Gemini 6 — a first-time feat for 2 crewed flights.
Lovell was additionally on the spacecraft for the ultimate mission of the challenge, Gemini 12, which paired him with Buzz Aldrin, then a rookie.
With the Gemini missions full, NASA turned its consideration to placing a person on the moon.
Lovell and his colleagues on Apollo 8 helped make that potential, with NASA dubbing the circumnavigation “man’s maiden voyage to the moon”.
“We may really see the Earth begin to shrink,” Lovell would later inform the TV channel CSPAN. “It jogs my memory of being in a automobile, looking the again window, going inside a tunnel and seeing the tunnel entrance shrink as you go farther into the tunnel. It was fairly a sensation to consider.”
“You needed to pinch your self: Hey, we’re actually going to the moon.”
In 1969, Apollo 11 would make good on the promise of Lovell’s mission, attaining the primary profitable moon touchdown of a crewed flight. Lovell’s former colleague Aldrin joined Neil Armstrong in being the primary human beings to plant a foot on the moon.
Lovell was meant to land on the moon himself. He was 42 on the time of his flight with Apollo 13, which was likewise charged with finishing a lunar touchdown.
However two days into the 10-day mission, the crew heard an explosion. “OK, Houston,” Lovell’s colleague Swigert radioed again to Earth, coining a well-known phrase. “We’ve had an issue right here.”
Lovell communicated that the spacecraft was “venting one thing out into” house. That turned out to be oxygen leaking out of an exploded tank. One other tank remained, but it surely was broken, as have been the gas cells. That, in flip, risked leaving the astronauts with out electrical energy.
The destiny of the three astronauts on board the Apollo 13 mission, together with Lovell, captured worldwide consideration.
The crew finally remodeled their lunar module right into a “lifeboat” and confronted harmful ranges of carbon dioxide as they looped across the moon to boomerang again to Earth.
Lovell finally co-wrote a ebook about his expertise, Misplaced Moon, and the American actor Tom Hanks performed him in a 1995 movie adaptation, known as Apollo 13.
Lovell himself made a cameo look reverse Hanks.
Throughout his ultimate days, Lovell met with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, who wrote in regards to the assembly on social media.
“Yesterday, I used to be honored to fulfill one in every of my private heroes, Navy Veteran and astronaut Jim Lovell,” Collins stated. “Jim’s outstanding management throughout the historic Apollo 13 mission is an inspiration to all!”
Upon studying of Lovell’s loss of life, Collins joined within the outpouring of condolences: “Astronaut and Navy Veteran Jim Lovell was a legend, plain and easy.”
Lovell is survived by his 4 youngsters.