Remembering Capt. James A. Lovell Jr.

Few astronauts were as famous as Jim Lovell—Tom Hanks played him in the 1995 movie Apollo 13. Lovell commanded that ill-fated space mission, which did not land on the Moon in 1970 because an oxygen-tank explosion crippled the spacecraft’s service module. With the crucial assistance of Mission Control, he managed to bring his crewmates, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, back home alive. But he deserves to be remembered for much more than that.  

Before joining NASA’s second astronaut class, Lovell was a distinguished naval aviator and test pilot. On his first mission, Gemini VII in 1965, he participated in the world’s first space rendezvous; 11 months later he commanded Gemini XII when Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin demonstrated that it was possible to do useful work on weightlessness. As a member of the Apollo 8 crew, he became one of the first three humans in history to travel into deep space and orbit the Moon, a crucial stepping stone to a landing. He was also Neil Armstrong’s backup commander for Apollo 11. Not many astronauts contributed more to fulfilling President Kennedy’s promise to land a human on the Moon by 1970 than Jim Lovell.

For the National Air and Space Museum, Capt. Lovell’s passing is a great loss. He willingly did everything to help the museum—notably, speak at public events and reach out to potential supporters. In 2016, we awarded him the National Air and Space Museum Trophy (now the Michael Collins Trophy) for Lifetime Achievement. It wasn’t just his many contributions to NASA and human spaceflight that earned him this award, it was also his sustained commitment to teaching young people and the general public about the value of America's space programs.

 Lovell spoke at the Museum many times and the recordings are available to watch again online. He spoke at our annual John H. Glenn Lecture in Space History twice: Once in 2008 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 8 with his crewmates, Frank Borman and William Anders, and again in 2010 with Fred Haise and T.K. Mattingly, the original prime crew of Apollo 13, and flight director Gene Kranz. In 2014 he was the featured speaker at the Vice Adm. Donald D. Engen Flight Jacket Night and in 2018 he spoke at the Spirit of Apollo event the Museum held at Washington National Cathedral to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8. To celebrate the 50th anniversary Apollo 13 in 2020, he joined us for a virtual live chat. 

He will truly be missed by our museum—and by the Smithsonian and the nation.