James A. Lovell Jr.

1928–2025

Latest News: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies at Age 97

James A. Lovell Jr., one of the three astronauts aboard the harrowing Apollo 13 lunar mission, died August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a news release from NASA. He was 97 years old.

“Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements,” NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy said in a statement.

Lovell became a NASA astronaut in 1962. He made history on the Apollo 8 mission six years later, when he and crew members Frank Borman and William A. Anders became the astronauts to leave the Earth’s gravitational influence. Lovell also served as a backup commander to Neil Armstrong for the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which marked the first time humans landed on the moon.

However, Lovell is most associated with the disastrous Apollo 13 flight in 1970. While onboard the spacecraft, he and crewmates Fred Haise and Jack Swigert were forced to abort a scheduled moon landing after their service module’s cryogenic oxygen system suffered a major failure. With the help of Mission Control in Houston, the astronauts safely returned to Earth on April 17, six days after liftoff. The mission became the subject of the Academy Award-winning movie Apollo 13 (1995), directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Lovell.

At the time of his retirement, Lovell had spent more hours in space than any other person with 715, plus 5 minutes.

James A. Lovell Jr., also known as Jim Lovell, was a test pilot before becoming a NASA astronaut. His early interest in rocket science took him to places literally out of this world. For a time, Lovell was the world’s most traveled astronaut and part of several historical firsts with his flights on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8. On Apollo 13, Lovell and his crew turned an imminent catastrophe into a “successful failure” as they brought home a damaged spaceship. Lovell retired from the space program in 1973 and worked in the private sector. He died in August 2025 at age 97.

FULL NAME: James Arthur Lovell Jr.
BORN: March 25, 1928
DIED: August 7, 2025
BIRTHPLACE: Cleveland, Ohio
SPOUSE: Marilyn Lovell (1952–2023)
CHILDREN: Barbara, James III, Susan, and Jeffrey
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

James Arthur Lovell Jr. was born on March 25, 1928, in Cleveland. His father, James Lovell Sr., died when Jim was only 5 years old. His mother, Blanche, raised her only child in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

There, Jim attended Juneau High School and became an Eagle Scout. He continued his education at the University of Wisconsin from 1946 to 1948, before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1952.

Lovell was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy and served on several assignments, including landing jets on aircraft carriers at night. Such training served him well throughout his career. In 1958, Lovell graduated from Naval Test Pilot School and began a career testing fighter aircraft and other jets. The jobs there carried a high level of danger and a high casualty rate, so it was a natural place for NASA to recruit astronauts.

In September 1962, NASA selected 34-year-old Lovell for astronaut training. It was actually his second application. He had been rejected earlier due to a temporary liver condition. Lovell continued serving in the Navy throughout his time in the space program.

After serving as a backup pilot on an earlier Gemini mission, Lovell was selected to pilot the Gemini 7 mission with Frank Borman as commander. The assignment lasted from December 4 to December 18, 1965, and marked the longest any human was in space until the Soviet-manned Soyuz 9 in 1970 became the first to surpass it. The mission’s length, 330 hours and 35 minutes, wasn’t the only test of endurance for Lovell and Borman; the pair were jammed into a spacecraft the size of a telephone booth. The mission also conducted a crucial maneuver for the planned Apollo missions: the rendezvous of two manned, maneuverable space craft, the Gemini 7 and the Gemini 6A.

His performance on Gemini 7 earned Lovell a command position on Gemini 12 with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin as pilot from November 11 to November 15, 1966. The mission featured another rendezvous and a docking procedure as well as a spacewalk by Aldrin. The flight brought the Gemini program to a successful close, and NASA then began preparations for the Apollo program and the journey to the moon.

Apollo 8

William Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman became the first people to leave Earth’s orbit as part of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.

The Apollo 8 mission was scheduled during the 1968 Christmas holiday, from December 21 to December 27. Serving as the command module pilot and navigator, Lovell was part of its three-man crew. Apollo 8 proved to be a cavalcade of firsts: the first manned mission to leave Earth’s orbit as well as the first to allow the astronauts to see the Earth as a whole planet, to directly see the far side of the Moon, and to witness Earthrise.

The mission was also one of the most difficult in NASA’s history. In order for the Lunar Orbiter to travel safely around the Moon, the propulsion unit needed to fire for the exact amount of time at precisely the right moment. Too little or too late and the capsule would be flung off into space; too much or too soon and the spacecraft might crash into the Moon. Updates on the flight were covered by the major American television networks and broadcast all over the world.

On Christmas Eve, the crew of Apollo 8 captivated an estimated 1 billion television and radio listeners by reading from the book of Genesis as an image of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon was shown on television screens. Soon after the crew members returned, they were voted Time magazine’s “Men of the Year.”

Apollo 13: “Houston, we have a problem”

Apollo 13 was to be Lovell’s fourth and final NASA operation and his first time on the surface of the Moon. The mission launched on April 11, 1970, with fellow crew members John L. Swigert Jr. and Fred W. Haise Jr.

For the first two days, Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight in NASA’s history. Fifty-five hours after launch, the flight crew conducted a routine cryogenic oxygen tank stir. Damaged electrical insulation on the wiring created a spark, and the tank exploded, causing a loss of oxygen and electrical power in the service module, Odyssey, where Lovell, Swigert, and Haise were located.

Lovell calmly reported the disaster to Mission Control: “Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Although frequently misquoted as “Houston, we have a problem,” Lovell’s remarks live on in popular culture as an idiom describing an unforeseen complication.

The mission’s moon landing was quickly abandoned, and it was decided that the Lunar Module (LM) would become a lifeboat to get the astronauts back to Earth. Lovell piloted the LM around the moon and back home. Apollo 13 returned safely on April 17, 1970.

Jim Lovell, second from left, and his fellow Apollo 13 crew met with President Richard Nixon after they safely returned to Earth.

Decades later, in 1995, Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger wrote Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. The book served as the basis for the 1995 Oscar-winning movie Apollo 13 directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton. Lovell had a cameo role in the film as the captain of the recovery ship.

During the twilight of his career as an astronaut, Lovell received further education at Harvard’s Advanced Management Program in 1971. He left NASA and the Navy with the rank of a captain on March 1, 1973, just before his 45^th birthday.

Lovell worked in various corporate jobs until his retirement in 1991. He then toured the nation, giving speeches at colleges and universities about his experiences as an astronaut and businessman.

In his later years, Jim Lovell was a regularly featured speaker at events across the nation.

In his personal life, Lovell was married to Marilyn Lovell for 71 years. The couple had been high school sweethearts. Their wedding was held hours after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1952.

Jim and Marilyn went on to have four children together: Barbara, James III, Susan, and Jeffrey. They lived in Lake Forest, Illinois, for decades and remained together until Marilyn’s death in August 2023.

Lovell died at age 97 in Lake Forest, Illinois, on August 7, 2025. No cause was given.

Following his death, his family shared a public statement that read, in part: “We are enormously proud of his amazing life and career accomplishments, highlighted by his legendary leadership in pioneering human space flight. But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero.”

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