[HN Gopher] Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, has died
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Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, has died
Author : LorenDB
Score : 281 points
Date : 2025-08-08 19:12 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nasa.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nasa.gov)
| rbanffy wrote:
| Houston, I have a problem with my eyes.
| Rooster61 wrote:
| 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.
|
| Godspeed sir
| pjmorris wrote:
| > IMO, he, and everyone involved with Apollo 13 after it left
| the ground, truly represent the peak of NASA personnel.
|
| Agreed. One of the best books I've read on Apollo was 'Apollo:
| Race to the Moon', by Murray and Cox. It spends a lot of time
| on the engineering and management challenges behind what they
| accomplished then. One of the book's best chapters was on the
| enormous team(s) on the ground behind the troubleshooting and
| problem-solving for Apollo 13.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| > cool manner in which Jim and everyone else conducted
| themselves
|
| I find it interesting that the argument briefly depicted in the
| 1995 film was added for dramatic effect. The real crew didn't
| even raise their voices!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13_(film)#Technical_and...
| actinium226 wrote:
| 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.
| bunderbunder wrote:
| He spoke at my school, too, and I got a chance to shake his
| hand. It was only a brief personal encounter, but I also came
| away with the impression that he must be one of the kindest
| people walking around on this rock.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Movies about men who survived despite incredibly long odds will
| never be the same once Tom Hanks dies.
| mhh__ wrote:
| "We" [0] need to get back up there before they're all gone.
|
| [0] I say "We" but I'm not American...
| bwb wrote:
| Human works too, or earthling :)
| ColinWright wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Per aspera
| sylens wrote:
| 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.
| TMWNN wrote:
| 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/com
| ments/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
| lenerdenator wrote:
| There should be a national day of mourning.
|
| There _won 't_ be, but there should be.
| FabHK wrote:
| Trivia: Jim Lovell is the only person to fly to the moon _twice_
| without landing on it (scheduled "test flight" on Apollo 8,
| unscheduled emergency on Apollo 13).
|
| 12 people flew to the moon without landing on it, now only 1 is
| still alive (Fred Haise).
|
| 12 people walked on the moon, 4 are still alive (Buzz Aldrin,
| David Scott, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt).
|
| (Conclusion: walking on the moon is healthy?)
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Conclusion: the people selected to walk on the moon were fit
| and healthy
| WJW wrote:
| I don't doubt that the people selected to walk on the moon
| were indeed fit and healthy, but it seems like a stretch to
| think that the people who flew on the earlier Apollo missions
| were selected to less stringent criteria. The selection
| effect should be just as strong for the people who "merely"
| got to fly around the moon. So out of two sets of people
| selected for being healthy, one group seems to be much more
| alive than the other.
|
| (Also yes obviously the sample size is too low to draw
| meaningful conclusions)
| amalcon wrote:
| If anything, it would be even more so. If a person on the
| moon had a medical emergency, this would be a serious
| problem but there's another person there to help and/or fly
| the lander back to the capsule. If the person in the
| capsule had a medical emergency, it's hard to see how any
| of the crew survive.
|
| More likely though, as you suggest, the same astronomical
| standards (pun intended) applied to all crew members.
| gonzobonzo wrote:
| > I don't doubt that the people selected to walk on the
| moon were indeed fit and healthy, but it seems like a
| stretch to think that the people who flew on the earlier
| Apollo missions were selected to less stringent criteria.
|
| It's not a stretch to think that the people who flew on the
| earlier missions could have been older on average, though.
| Just looking at some of the ages, 2 of the still alive
| crowd are younger than all of the Apollo 8 astronauts. All
| of them are younger than two out of the three Apollo 8
| astronauts.
|
| Even a few years difference in age can make a huge impact
| when we're talking about people in their 90's.
| LorenDB wrote:
| > (Conclusion: walking on the moon is healthy?)
|
| NASA vetted the Apollo astronauts for those who did not have
| medical problems, so it would be more accurate to say they
| walked on the moon because they were healthy.
| sealeck wrote:
| They also vetted the people who didn't walk on the moon
| (because they apply the same testing to all astronauts).
| hinkley wrote:
| Long flights without getting up to stand are dangerous after
| all.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I have a dream that another human will walk the Moon while at
| least one of the Apollo astronauts is still alive to watch.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| I bet a couple will see it it on their deathbeds in the same
| way that Adams and Jefferson refused to die until the country
| hit a key milestone.
| drweevil wrote:
| I'm wondering if the surviving Apollo astronauts are kinda
| like the surviving '72 Dolphins ;)
| Bluestein wrote:
| This would be so great - a "changing of the guard" of sorts
| ...
|
| If only Apollo hadn't lost momentum ...
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| I mean it's not so much that they lost momentum as there's
| just... not a ton of good reasons to go to the moon. It's a
| long, incredibly dangerous trip and there's just not much
| there.
|
| Same reason we've never sent people to Mars, it's even more
| complicated, magnitudes more dangerous, and what exactly
| are we accomplishing in doing so...? Nothin there.
| snozolli wrote:
| George W. Bush called for a permanent moon base back in
| '04. The primary motivator, from what I recall, was as a
| launching point for Mars exploration.
|
| https://www.npr.org/2004/01/15/1597182/bush-calls-for-
| manned...
|
| The timeline is pretty entertaining and a bit depressing,
| if you wanted to see the plan succeed:
|
| ...
|
| By 2014: The first manned mission for the Crew
| Exploration Vehicle.
|
| By 2015: Astronauts will land on the moon using the Crew
| Exploration Vehicle.
|
| By 2020: The United States will have established an
| extended human presence on the moon, using it as a
| launching pad for other manned exploration missions.
|
| As for why, 1) to ensure the survival of humanity, 2) to
| drive scientific development and 3) because it's there.
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| xkcd 893
| fsckboy wrote:
| https://xkcd.com/893/
|
| wow, xkcd went full-Elon
|
| "The universe is probably littered with the one-planet
| graves of cultures which made the sensible economic
| decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each
| discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made
| the irrational decision."
| zamadatix wrote:
| Randall started out at NASA before doing XKCD full time.
| latchkey wrote:
| Walking is good exercise!
| unethical_ban wrote:
| Probably one of the more famous astronauts in pop culture given
| the movie Apollo 13. As someone who grew up near NASA that is one
| of my favorite films.
|
| I recommend "A Man on the Moon" for anyone interested in that
| era.
|
| Rest in Peace! Time to read up on him again.
| hinkley wrote:
| That movie turned 30 about 5 weeks ago.
| davidw wrote:
| I know some of the space race stuff was driven by cold war
| politics, but I think it was still pretty cool. Big, difficult
| goals can be inspiring.
| creativenolo wrote:
| >Big, difficult goals can be inspiring.
|
| So true.
|
| > Some of the space race was driven by Cold War politics.
|
| Is it fairer to say, initiated by? Listen to Michael Collins
| speak on the first episode of "13 Minutes to the Moon." "We did
| it." The "we" being humanity, not nationalism.
|
| Yes, it started with rivalry, but it lifted humanity's ceiling.
| There is a lot wrong with the Apollo story (race, gender), but
| these issues were a symptom of the time, less a cause. These
| issues were reckoning against a legacy.
|
| The goal was to show superiority, not leverage it. I wish this
| was the case for a nation capable of going to the moon today.
| Instead of leverage against shared and common issues, the goal
| was to better.
| d00mB0t wrote:
| "Houston, we have a problem" RIP Jim Lovell.
| xatax wrote:
| Since we're talking about the actual astronaut, not the movie,
| I feel I should point out Swigert and Lovell both say "Houston,
| _we 've had_ a problem", not have.
| Metacelsus wrote:
| RIP to one of the greats.
|
| The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation wrote up a great tribute:
| https://www.astronautscholarship.org/assets/2025-asf-lovell-...
| jackcviers3 wrote:
| A true inspiration
| ashton314 wrote:
| I don't get that emotional when watching movies. I cried a little
| when the parachutes opened in _Apollo 13_.
|
| As a kid I had a book detailing hundreds of space missions--
| mostly probes, obviously--but my favorite mission to read about
| was Apollo 13. Just incredible.
|
| Maybe when Jim got to heaven, the first place the angels took him
| to was where he would have landed on the moon.
| Sharlin wrote:
| > I cried a little when the parachutes opened in Apollo 13.
|
| Thanks in no small part to Horner's score, at least in my case.
| dielotr wrote:
| As a member of Apollo 13, he flew farther from Earth than any
| other human being ever has.
|
| He was literally closer to God and the Heavens than anyone else
| before or since.
|
| RIP and ad astra to a great American
| addaon wrote:
| > He was literally closer to God
|
| If you subscribe to a religion that not only assigns a physical
| known location to God, but puts that location at a significant
| distance away from humanity either in a specific direction, or
| in a general "anywhere except where those people are" sense. Is
| that a common belief structure?
| WalterBright wrote:
| I'd fly anywhere with Jim Lovell.
| satisfice wrote:
| He survived the Apollo 13 mission, only to die anyway.
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