by Jason Snell
Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell dies at 97
Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 and one of three men to have gone around the moon twice, died on Thursday:
The plight of Apollo 13 in 1970 transfixed Americans. The capsule was nearly 56 hours into its flight and some 200,000 miles from Earth when the astronauts heard that ominous bang. Red lights signaling system failures glowed on their console. Captain Lovell, along with Mr. Swigert and Mr. Haise, civilians but also former test pilots who were making their first spaceflight, joined the scientists and technical experts on the ground to improvise a plan that might bring the crew home safely.
“Apollo 13” is one of my favorite films and Jim Lovell was always one of my favorite astronauts. He always seemed genial and enthusiastic and didn’t seem to wear too heavily the burden of never making it to the surface of the moon.
One of my favorite movie add-ons of all time is the commentary track Jim and Marilyn Lovell recorded for the DVD (and subsequent disc) releases of “Apollo 13.” It’s not every day that you get to listen to people who participated in history comment on how accurate, or inaccurate, the film depiction of that event is. His book (with Jeffery Kluger) Lost Moon, rebranded as a film tie-in, is also excellent.
The film ends with Tom Hanks as Lovell musing, “I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?” Sadly, Lovell never got to find out. But Mount Marilyn stands forever on the moon.