‘Ah, Houston, We've Had A Problem' - Astronaut Jim Lovell Gone At 97

Forbes

2 days ago

Captain Jim Lovell at Earth to America! which airs on TBS Sunday, November 20 at 8 p.m. 10423MC_80036.jpg (Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage for Temp Account) WireImage for Temp Account
The world is mourning the loss of the great Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell dead at 97.
What many folks don't know is that Lovell is the only person to have visited the moon twice without setting foot on it. Aboard Apollo 8, his crew became the first to orbit the moon on Christmas eve 1968, a scheduled operation. Then, in 1970 on Apollo 13, trouble caused Lovell and his crew to abandon their scheduled landing, only to loop around the moon and return directly to earth. The catastrophic mission, of course, became the critically acclaimed 1995 film 'Apollo 13,' with Tom Hanks playing the part of Lovell.
I was lucky enough to have interviewed Lovell when he was in his 80s. He was a kind man with a wry sense of humor. I thought what he had to say back then might shed some light on his illustrious life. As such, following are edited excerpts from our conversations over the years.
Jim Clash: How was it you became an astronaut?
Jim Lovell: I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes, and got selected to be an astronaut later on. It was just a continuation of a type of career I wanted to follow.
Clash: What did you think of Tom Hanks' movie, "Apollo 13"?
Lovell: Actually, it was pretty good all the way around. It followed the book very closely. There was some artistic license taken to tell the story without it being too long and wordy, though. It appeared that Jack Swigert had to earn his wings every day because he was suddenly put on the flight as the backup, not as primary. Yet he was a very competent astronaut, so we didn't really worry about him in real life.
And then, towards the end of the movie, it appears that Ken Mattingly, played by Gary Sinise, is the person who really got us home safely by knowing how to transfer the power. That wasn't exactly true, either. It was four good electrical engineers plus Ken that did the job.
Clash: Is there anything in life you thought was failure that later turned out to be success in disguise?
Lovell: That's a good question. For some time, I thought Apollo 13 was a failure. I was disappointed I didn't get to land on the moon. But actually, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. After six successful Apollo flights, including two lunar landings, people were getting bored. Those in the media weren't calling anymore.
We sent a TV feed out to the three networks [for Apollo 13] and they never even bothered to carry it. It was, "You've been there, done that - what else can you do?" But when the explosion occurred, it brought out the true value of leadership, teamwork, and initiative at Mission Control and turned an almost certain catastrophe for NASA into a successful recovery.
Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton in zero gravity in a scene from the film 'Apollo 13', 1995. (Photo) Getty Images
Clash: You must have experienced fear when that oxygen tank exploded en route to the moon.
Lovell: Well, we were all apprehensive. But you have to have a positive attitude, number one. And number two, we were all from test pilot backgrounds, so naturally, this was an adventure. [With Apollo 13] we had to say, "Okay, here's the problem. What do we have to work with? Is it immediate that we have to do something?"
We first thought a meteorite had hit the Lunar Module. Had that happened, we'd have been dead in just a few minutes when we lost atmosphere. But that wasn't the case. It turned out that the explosion had crippled the Command Module. So we still had the Lunar Module, which we used as a lifeboat to get home.
Clash: On Apollo 8 in 1968, how was it that Bill Anders, the junior crew-member, managed to take the iconic Earthrise photo?
Lovell: At the beginning of the flight, he was designated as the camera guy. When the Earth came up from the lunar horizon, I was the first one to really look at it and say, "We've got to take a picture." Bill had a Hasselblad, with ektachrome film. He got the shots, which were great - I'm glad he did. But I always kid him and say, "I directed you on how to shoot that thing.'
Clash: Did you guys take photos, too?
Lovell: Yeah, but we were handicapped. I think Frank [Borman] took some black-and-whites. Like I said, Bill had the color film, but he also had a telescopic lens. If you look at that picture, the Earth is really bigger than it is when you see it with the naked eye. Bill was the lunar pilot on the flight, and we didn't have a Lunar Module. We had to give him something to do, so we thought photography would be pretty good [laughs].
Clash: Describe your view of the back of the moon, the first-ever by humans, aboard Apollo 8.
Lovell: Well, that was quite a thrill, the high point of my space career. We got up there and saw those age-old craters on the far side, which you can't see from down here on Earth. But the real revelation was looking at Earth as it really is in space.
It's a very small body when you see it from the perspective of the moon and sun. It has color. - the moon, of course, is only shades of grey. And when you look at it, you realize there are more than six billion people down there. I could put my thumb up to a window and completely hide the Earth. I thought, "Everything I've ever known is behind my thumb.'
Clash: There have been differing views about whether our next step in space should be to go back to the moon or go directly to Mars.
Lovell: My view is that we should go back to the moon, build up the infrastructure to make flights there commonplace - be comfortable with it - then use that infrastructure to expand and go to Mars. In spaceflight terms, six landings on the moon back in the sixties and seventies doesn't mean much. Mars is a long ways away. The moon is only 240,000 miles, but Mars is in the millions. It's too risky without spending more time going to the moon.
Clash: Didn't you meet the great Charles Lindbergh once?
Lovell: Yes, before one of my Apollo flights. I remember joking about his fuel load and ours. All the fuel he had put on his airplane to fly to Paris probably wouldn't even light our rocket engines!