He came to speak at a small awards ceremony at my university. He came into the room and said "sorry, I know you were all expecting Tom Hanks!"
Really seemed like a great guy, shame to hear about his passing.
sylens · 8m ago
For an astronaut, it has to be a triumph to die of old age or natural causes. Doubly so for the crew of Apollo 13.
ColinWright · 10m ago
I was lucky enough to have met and spent some time with Jim Lovell. An absolute gentleman, and it was a joy to have been in his company.
Ad Astra ...
richardwhiuk · 7m ago
Per aspera
mhh__ · 27m ago
"We" [0] need to get back up there before they're all gone.
[0] I say "We" but I'm not American...
bwb · 22m ago
Human works too, or earthling :)
TMWNN · 2m ago
Lovell, as Pilot, flew with Frank Borman as Command Pilot on Gemini 7. They spent two very unpleasant weeks in space.[1]
Borman commanded Apollo 8, the first manned flight to the moon, again with Lovell. However, Lovell had by then commanded Gemini 12. So the odd situation resulted in which the person with more spaceflight experience was not commander.[2]
Lovell has another distinction besides the whole "survived almost certain death in space on Apollo 13" thing: He is the only one of the three Apollo 8 crewmen to have not become a Fortune 500 CEO. (Frank Borman ran Eastern Airlines, and Bill Anders ran General Dynamics.)
[1] TIL that NASA's Gemini 7 space mission lasted for 14 days. After rendezvousing with Gemini 6 on the 11th day, the two astronauts had nothing to do other than read books in the very cramped cockpit. Frank Borman, the commander, said that the last three days were "bad".<https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ccpszs/til_...>
[2] This has happened a few more times, including the current Crew-11 to ISS, in which a rookie is commander while the other three have all flown in space before
rbanffy · 1h ago
Houston, I have a problem with my eyes.
Rooster61 · 46m ago
An utter shame that he never got a chance to actually touch down on the moon. IMO, he, and everyone involved with Apollo 13 after it left the ground, truly represent the peak of NASA personnel. Listening to the calm, cool manner in which Jim and everyone else conducted themselves with while their spacecraft was literally falling apart around them give me chills.
There won't be, but there should be.
Really seemed like a great guy, shame to hear about his passing.
Ad Astra ...
[0] I say "We" but I'm not American...
Borman commanded Apollo 8, the first manned flight to the moon, again with Lovell. However, Lovell had by then commanded Gemini 12. So the odd situation resulted in which the person with more spaceflight experience was not commander.[2]
Lovell has another distinction besides the whole "survived almost certain death in space on Apollo 13" thing: He is the only one of the three Apollo 8 crewmen to have not become a Fortune 500 CEO. (Frank Borman ran Eastern Airlines, and Bill Anders ran General Dynamics.)
[1] TIL that NASA's Gemini 7 space mission lasted for 14 days. After rendezvousing with Gemini 6 on the 11th day, the two astronauts had nothing to do other than read books in the very cramped cockpit. Frank Borman, the commander, said that the last three days were "bad".<https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1ccpszs/til_...>
[2] This has happened a few more times, including the current Crew-11 to ISS, in which a rookie is commander while the other three have all flown in space before
Godspeed sir