The voice of "Houston, we've had a problem" has fallen silent

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Astronaut James A. Lovell died last Thursday in Lake Forest in the US state of Illinois. NASA informed the public today (Saturday) of the death of the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which went down in history as a "successful failure", according to the US space agency.

There was a fire in an oxygen tank on the flight to the moon and other systems were also affected. The three-man crew of Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise orbited the moon without landing and had to endure four days under the most adverse conditions until they were able to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970. NASA declared the mission a success despite the failed moon landing because it was able to rescue the astronauts. Jim Lovell, as commander, played a decisive role in this, and like the personnel on the ground, those involved became national heroes.

Astronaut at the second attempt

However, Lovell had to wait a long time for his chance to set foot on the moon. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering and engineering, he became a test pilot in the Navy, like many of the first US space travelers. According to his NASA profile (PDF), he logged over 7000 flight hours and also led a program for the F-4 Phantom (F4H) fighter aircraft. He later became a safety engineer for a squadron – Flight safety was obviously in Lovell's blood.

However, when he applied to NASA in 1961, he was rejected. In 1962, he tried again and made it into the Gemini program, the precursor to the moon missions. On his very first flight with Gemini in 1965, he set a record for the longest stay in space up to that point with 330 hours. One year later, Lovell took off on the last flight of the program as commander of Gemini 12. His co-pilot was Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 became the second person after Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon with Apollo 11.

Two missions around the moon

Jim Lovell also took part in the first flight of the Saturn V rocket to the moon, still without a lunar module: on the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, he orbited the Earth's satellite together with commander Frank Borman and William Anders. After that, however, the now very experienced astronaut was only assigned as a replacement for the commander of Apollo 11. If Neil Armstrong had failed, Lovell would have been the first man to set foot on the moon. As this did not happen, he had to wait almost another year for his next space flight: Apollo 13.

In 1973, Lovell retired from NASA and the Navy and began a career in business, where he made it to president of the telephone network business at construction and infrastructure provider Fisk in 1977. In 1994, together with journalist Jeffrey Kluger, he wrote the book "Lost Moon", on which the 1995 film "Apollo 13" was based. In it, Tom Hanks plays the role of Jim Lovell. The film won two Oscars for best editing and sound.

The misquote

This movie also made the misrepresentation of Jim Lovell's most famous quote a household word. Since then, Tom Hanks' "Houston, we have a problem" has always been regarded as an announcement that we are facing a very serious situation. In fact, according to radio traffic recordings, John Swigert first said "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here". However, this message was overlaid by interference, so the ground station asked for the radio message to be repeated. This then came from Jim Lovell as "Houston, we've had a problem."

According to US media reports, Jim Lovell is survived by four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His wife, Marylin Lovell, had already died in 2023. The two had met in high school and had been married since 1952.

(nie)