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Scoop
a day ago
- Science
- Scoop
Jim Lovell To Donald Trump: From America's Best To Its Worst
Wednesday, 13 August 2025, 1:36 pm Opinion: Martin LeFevre - Meditations Taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders, this iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon, with astronauts Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell aboard. Image Credit: NASA The astronaut Jim Lovell died last week. Those of us old enough to recall Apollo 8's circumnavigation of the moon, captained by Lovell over Christmas 1968, will tell you that it was nearly as much of a global event as Neil Armstrong's landing less than two years later. Like most American boys at the time, I followed the Apollo missions closely. 1968 is the same year that '2001, A Space Odyssey' came out, which is considered one of the best films of all time. By grappling with the big questions about humanity's place in the universe, the movie inspired me as a 16-year-old to be a philosopher, though I didn't realise it until ten years later. Apollo 8 was the first time humans left Earth orbit, and it was a huge gamble for NASA. The United States was locked in an ideological struggle with the USSR, and in John F. Kennedy's words, 'landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth' was a national priority. Though Apollo 8 wasn't originally scheduled to orbit the moon, NASA took a chance, and the mission was a tremendous success. Equaling the technical feat, there was a moment of global unity that Lovell, Borman and Anders provided that Christmas Eve. As a billion people from 64 countries – one-quarter of the world's population at the time – watched and listened, the three astronauts took turns reading the first lines from Genesis. This mission was the first time humans had seen the entire Earth from space, and Bill Anders is credited with taking the most famous photo from space, 'Earthrise,' which started the global environmental movement. Irrespective of the Christian creation myth of Genesis, anyone with half a heart cannot now listen to the Christmas message from humankind's first spacefarers as they orbited the moon without it bringing a tear to the eye. Not out of any traditionally religious sentiment, but because it crackles with the highest aspirations of the human race. It's hard to fathom now, but the backdrop of the immensely successful Apollo program was the immense failure the Vietnamese War was becoming, and the generational division it was spawning. The contradiction between America's technological prowess and political/military failure reverberates to this day. Indeed, the unaddressed darkside of American character came to dominate its culture and politics to the point of the present destruction of our democracy. Both Lovell and Armstrong were men of exceptional integrity, humility, courage, and competence. Lovell's leadership was instrumental in bringing the badly disabled Apollo 13 crew home, and Armstrong's cool competence landed the Eagle on the moon with only seconds of fuel left. How did the United States come to be ruled by the worst example of its manhood in Donald Trump and his henchmen like Vance, Hegseth and Homan? The short answer is that the American virtues that produced the space program reached the zenith of their external expression with Apollo, and since the moon landing have been eroded year after year by Americans refusing to turn and face the darkness that produced the atomic bombings and the horrors of Vietnam. The first Gulf War supposedly exorcised the ghosts of Vietnam, but it led, after the wasted Clinton years, to the 'forever wars against terror.' Even Barack Obama doubled down in Afghanistan, and in his professorial purblindness, kissed the bankers asses in 2009 after the financial meltdown, and opened the door to Trump. Today, nothing brands the United States as an authoritarian banana republic more than sending the National Guard into Washington DC to stop a crime wave that's been in decline. As one commentator said, 'No one is really supposed to believe that the deployment of troops to America's most liberal, most racially diverse, and most culturally thriving cities is an actual response to an actual crisis. Rather, the thinness of the pretext is itself a demonstration of power.' Trump cannot 'impose suffering' however. He can't even impose his will without a prostrate citizenry, focused solely on its personal escapes. In 1968, the American people would have revolted en masse to being ruled by an ugly-mouth tyrant. After all, we threw out the much less criminal and despotic Richard Nixon in 1974. Authoritarianism in a nation that has no history of democracy arises from longstanding internal conditions of fear and domination in all its forms. Authoritarianism in a nation that gave birth to modern democracy, and prided itself on the power of the people, arises from relatively recent internal conditions of individualism, apathy, indifference and a collective abrogation of responsibility as citizens. It's pointless to write about 'the core features of fascist regimes,' and refer abstractly to the 'collapse of rhetoric and reality.' Yes, 'the ability to make your lies have the force of fact is a terrifying power,' but in a culture that has long prized 'my perspective,' and 'my truth,' seeking and speaking truth has eroded to the point that few feel there is any such thing as truth anymore. The continuous drumbeat of 'competing narratives' in the national media only adds to the underlying corrosion. Even in a woefully imperfect democracy, which is what America has arguably been since a few decades after its inception, tyranny emanates not from the top down, as pundits and academics would have you believe, but from the bottom up. The evil of nationalism is again sweeping the world. Neil Armstrong didn't even want to plant a ridiculous flag on the moon. Look up at the moon tonight. Now NASA is making a priority of building a Trump-driven nuclear power plant on the lunar surface, motivated by the lunacy of extending nationalistic dominion to our nearest celestial neighbor. The man-made evil that flows through Trump and Putin means to destroy the human spirit as surely as the American spirit has been destroyed by the perennial denial of self-made darkness. How far we've come technologically, and how far we've regressed spiritually and philosophically. Martin LeFevre Apollo 8 genesis reading © Scoop Media
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Jim Lovell never walked the moon, but astronaut was a true trail blazer
It is proper that the moon was full Saturday, the day the headlines recorded the passing of Jim Lovell. It offered the opportunity for us to see the full face of the place where he never got the chance to walk, the place that had captured his imagination throughout his storied astronaut career. He never walked on the moon because the spacecraft that took him there in 1970 exploded as it approached, setting the stage for the Apollo 13 rescue drama that is in its own way as remarkable as America's six successful moon landing missions. While the first lunar steps of Neil Armstrong in 1969 are the historical benchmark, Jim Lovell and his Apollo 8 crewmates were the first to visit that other world in 1968, as they tested the hardware by flying to the moon, orbiting it and returning. I had just turned 11, and like the rest of Earth, I was glued to watching Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders send TV pictures from 70 miles above a lunar surface I could only see from a quarter million miles away, with a Sears telescope in my back yard. During that Christmas Eve telecast, as the world anticipated the observance of Jesus' birth, the crew read the creation story from the Bible. Lovell's portion began with Genesis 1:5: 'and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and morning were the first day.' Borman completed the reading by adding: 'From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas — and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.' Every moment of a space mission is documented in a flight plan. Lovell kept the page containing the script of that night, and he donated it to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. In 2018, on the 50th anniversary of that remarkable voyage, it was displayed in the National Cathedral in Washington. Sixteen months after Apollo 8, it was fitting that Lovell would command his own mission, scheduled as the third to land on the moon. He and lunar module pilot Fred Haise would walk on the Fra Mauro highlands, a more rugged terrain between the flatter landing sites of the prior missions. But the April 13, 1970, deep-space explosion in an oxygen tank turned a moon landing mission into history's most remarkable rescue mission. Reproduced beautifully in Ron Howard's 1995 film (with Tom Hanks as Lovell), the following four days united the planet in prayer that Lovell, Haise and Jack Swigert would not die in the black vacuum of space. Miraculous ingenuity from the crew and NASA helped them return to a hero's welcome like no other. While it was not a celebration of mission accomplished, it was a celebration of three lives saved against the steepest of odds. I don't know what the chances are that one kid consumed with our race to the moon 60 years ago would someday meet and share time with the heroes who made it happen, but I am that kid. On radio and in print, I have tried to keep alive the wonder felt by people of all ages as America reached for such lofty goals. In the process, I've had the chance to participate in events with this remarkable generation of explorers, including multiple occasions at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, where I hosted a panel in 2017 attended by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Bill Anders, Apollo 13 Flight Director Gene ('Failure is not an option') Kranz and Fort Worth's own Alan Bean, who walked on the moon during Apollo 12 in November 1969. The following year, the museum allowed me to host Lovell and Haise for an extended onstage reminiscence about the full scope of the Apollo 13 drama and the remarkable feat that enabled them to be sitting there that night. But having forgotten nothing of my pre-adolescent deep-dives into manned space flight, I had to ask Lovell about another indelible feat. 'Imagine a road trip in a small car,' I told the audience. 'Every few hours, you just have to get out to avoid going stir crazy. Well, in December 1965, our guest Jim Lovell and his future Apollo 8 partner Frank Borman climbed into the two-man Gemini 7 capsule and orbited the Earth in a vehicle with an interior like a Volkswagen Beetle.' I paused for effect. 'And they did it for two weeks.' A combined gasp and chuckle came from the crowd, and Lovell smiled as I peppered him with the kind of questions I would have asked if I were still in sixth grade. 'How did you handle, you know, the hygienic challenges?' His description of personal wipes and the zero-gravity acrobatics of bodily necessities added to an evening of riveting recollections. 'You came to dread having to open the storage bins,' he explained. In 1966, Lovell and Aldrin would pilot the ambitious final Gemini mission that would set the stage for the Apollo journeys that would put us on the moon. He blazed that trail in those Gemini missions. He blazed that trail on the Apollo 8 voyage that showed that humans could truly leave the Earth. In his Apollo 13 heroism and the way he shared his stories and lived his life for the half-century after, he inspired generations, reminding us of the best qualities Americans—and all people — can display. He will be buried at the United States Naval Academy next to Marilyn, his wife of more than 70 years, who passed away two years ago. In the lower right quadrant of the full moon, along the edge of the gray, bone-dry Sea of Fertility, there is a triangular mountain he named for her in 1968 as he sailed above the lunar landscape he thought he might land on one day. Jim Lovell never walked on the moon. But his path through American history, and the legacy he leaves among humanity's greatest explorers, is a journey never to be forgotten. Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at Follow him on X: @markdavis. Solve the daily Crossword
1News
3 days ago
- Science
- 1News
Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97
James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97. Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA said in a statement. '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,' NASA said. "We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.' One of NASA's most travelled astronauts in the agency's first decade, Lovell flew four times — Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 — with the two Apollo flights riveting the folks back on Earth. In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the first to leave Earth's orbit and the first to fly to and circle the moon. They could not land, but they put the US ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Letter writers told the crew that their stunning pale blue dot photo of Earth from the moon, a world first, and the crew's Christmas Eve reading from Genesis, saved America from a tumultuous 1968. ADVERTISEMENT The Apollo 13 mission had a lifelong impact on Lovell The safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts after their lunar landing mission encountered technical difficulties, 17th April 1970. From left to right, Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise, Mission Commander James A. Lovell and Command Module pilot John L. Swigert. (Source: Getty) But the big rescue mission was still to come. That was during the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in April 1970. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon. But Apollo 13's service module, carrying Lovell and two others, experienced a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its way to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending four cold and clammy days in the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat. ''The thing that I want most people to remember is (that) in some sense it was very much of a success,'' Lovell said during a 1994 interview. ''Not that we accomplished anything, but a success in that we demonstrated the capability of (NASA) personnel.'' A retired Navy captain known for his calm demeanour, Lovell told a NASA historian that his brush with death did affect him. 'I don't worry about crises any longer,' he said in 1999. Whenever he has a problem, 'I say, 'I could have been gone back in 1970. I'm still here. I'm still breathing'. So, I don't worry about crises.' And the mission's retelling in the popular 1995 movie Apollo 13 brought Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert renewed fame — thanks in part to Lovell's movie persona reporting "Houston, we have a problem", a phrase he didn't exactly utter. ADVERTISEMENT Lovell had ice water in his veins like other astronauts, but he didn't display the swagger some had, just quiet confidence, said Smithsonian Institution historian Roger Launius. He called Lovell 'a very personable, very down-to-earth type of person, who says 'This is what I do. Yes, there's risk involved. I measure risk'.' Lovell spent about 30 days in space across four missions Apollo 13 commander James A. Lovell speaks during a televised news conference at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, April 21, 1970, pointing to the spot on the service module where an explosion ripped a panel loose. (Source: Associated Press) In all, Lovell flew four space missions — and until the Skylab flights of the mid-1970s, he held the world record for the longest time in space with 715 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds. Aboard Apollo 8, Lovell described the oceans and land masses of Earth. "What I keep imagining is if I am some lonely traveller from another planet, what I would think about the Earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not," he remarked. That mission may be as important as the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, a flight made possible by Apollo 8, Launius said. "I think in the history of space flight, I would say that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program," Gene Kranz, NASA's legendary flight director, once said. ADVERTISEMENT Lovell was immortalised by Tom Hanks' portrayal Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton in zero gravity in a scene from the film Apollo 13, 1995. (Source: Getty) But if historians consider Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 the most significant of the Apollo missions, it was during Lovell's last mission — immortalised by the popular film starring Tom Hanks as Lovell — that he came to embody for the public the image of the cool, decisive astronaut. The Apollo 13 crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was on the way to the moon in April 1970, when an oxygen tank from the spaceship exploded 200,000 miles from Earth. That, Lovell recalled, was 'the most frightening moment in this whole thing'. Then oxygen began escaping, and 'we didn't have solutions to get home'. 'We knew we were in deep, deep trouble,' he told NASA's historian. Four-fifths of the way to the moon, NASA scrapped the mission. Suddenly, their only goal was to survive. ADVERTISEMENT Lovell's "Houston, we've had a problem", a variation of a comment Swigert had radioed moments before, became famous. In Hanks' version, it became "Houston, we have a problem". President Clinton stands with movie star Tom Hanks and astronaut James A. Lovell during their visit to the White House. Tom Hanks plays the role of James Lovell, who was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, in Ron Howard's 1995 drama, Apollo 13. (Source: Getty) What unfolded over the next four days captured the imagination of the nation and the world, which until then had largely been indifferent about what seemed a routine mission. With Lovell commanding the spacecraft, Kranz led hundreds of flight controllers and engineers in a furious rescue plan. The plan involved the astronauts moving from the service module, which was haemorrhaging oxygen, into the cramped, dark and frigid lunar lander while they rationed their dwindling oxygen, water and electricity. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, they swung around the moon, aimed for Earth and raced home. By coolly solving the problems under the most intense pressure imaginable, the astronauts and the crew on the ground became heroes. In the process of turning what seemed routine into a life-and-death struggle, the entire flight team had created one of NASA's finest moments that ranks with Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's walks on the moon nine months earlier. "They demonstrated to the world they could handle truly horrific problems and bring them back alive," said Launius. ADVERTISEMENT He regretted never being able to walk on the moon Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr., attends the 45th Anniversary of Apollo 8 "Christmas Eve Broadcast to Earth" event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (Source: Associated Press) The loss of the opportunity to walk on the moon "is my one regret", Lovell said in a 1995 interview with The Associated Press for a story on the 25th anniversary of the mission. President Bill Clinton agreed when he awarded Lovell the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1995. "While you may have lost the moon ... you gained something that is far more important perhaps: the abiding respect and gratitude of the American people," he said. Lovell once said that while he was disappointed he never walked on the moon, "The mission itself and the fact that we triumphed over certain catastrophe does give me a deep sense of satisfaction". And Lovell clearly understood why this failed mission afforded him far more fame than had Apollo 13 accomplished its goal. "Going to the moon, if everything works right, it's like following a cookbook. It's not that big a deal," he told the AP in 2004. "If something goes wrong, that's what separates the men from the boys." ADVERTISEMENT James A Lovell was born March 25, 1928, in Cleveland. He attended the University of Wisconsin before transferring to the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. On the day he graduated in 1952, he and his wife, Marilyn, were married. A test pilot at the Navy Test Centre in Patuxent River, Maryland, Lovell was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1962. He was the last of that second group of astronauts -- called 'the Next Nine' — alive and thus had been an astronaut longer than any other person alive. Lovell retired from the Navy and from the space program in 1973, and went into private business. In 1994, he and Jeff Kluger wrote Lost Moon, the story of the Apollo 13 mission and the basis for the film Apollo 13. In one of the final scenes, Lovell appeared as a Navy captain, the rank he actually had. He and his family ran a now-closed restaurant in suburban Chicago, Lovell's of Lake Forest. His wife, Marilynn, died in 2023. Survivors include four children. In a statement, his family hailed him as their 'hero'. 'We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humour, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible,' his family said. 'He was truly one of a kind.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Legendary Astronaut Dead at 97. He Was Part of Famous Missions
James Lovell was a legendary astronaut who was part of multiple famous missions, including one disastrous one. He was a "veteran of the Gemini VII, Gemini XII, and Apollo 8 missions before becoming the Mission Commander for the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 mission to the Moon," according to NASA. The space agency announced on Aug. 8 that Lovell has died. James Lovell's Family Confirmed His Death, Expressing Pride Over His Career NASA released a statement from Lovell's family, confirming his death. 'We are saddened to announce the passing of our beloved father, USN Captain James A. 'Jim' Lovell, a Navy pilot and officer, astronaut, leader, and space explorer. He was 97," the family's statement says. "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 importantly, he was our Hero. We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind.' NASA says, "Captain Lovell was selected as an Astronaut by NASA in September 1962. He has since served as backup pilot for the Gemini 4 flight and backup Commander for the Gemini 9 flight, as well as backup Commander to Neil Armstrong for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission." "On December 4, 1965, he and Frank Borman were launched into space on the history-making Gemini 7 mission. The flight lasted 330 hours and 35 minutes and included the first rendezvous of two manned maneuverable spacecraft," the space agency says. "The Gemini 12 mission, commanded by Lovell with Pilot Edwin Aldrin, began on November 11, 1966. This 4-day, 59-revolution flight brought the Gemini program to a successful close." Jim Lovell's Wife Marilyn Lovell Preceded Him in Death A biography of Lovell released by NASA says he was "Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928. Married to the former Marilyn Gerlach, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They have four children." Lovell's wife Marilyn Lovell died in 2023, according to her obituary. "On June 6, 1952, Marilyn and Jim married immediately following his graduation at St Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, MD. Jim would proudly tell everyone he, 'married the prettiest girl from Wisconsin!'" the obituary says. Legendary Astronaut Dead at 97. He Was Part of Famous Missions first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 8, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Gulf Today
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
US astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, dead at 97
US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 Moon mission which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday. The former Navy pilot, who was portrayed by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," died in a Chicago suburb on Thursday, the US space agency said in a statement. The astronaut's "life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," NASA said, praising his "character and steadfast courage." Lovell travelled to the Moon twice but never walked on the lunar surface. Yet he is considered one of the greats of the US space program after rescuing a mission that teetered on the brink of disaster as the world watched in suspense far below. "There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own," Hanks said in an Instagram post. "Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy." 'Houston, we've had a problem' Launched on April 11, 1970 -- nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon -- Apollo 13 was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing. In this photo provided by NASA, astronaut James Lovell, Apollo 13 commander poses for a portrait in his space suit, Feb. 16, 1970. File/AP The plan was that Lovell would walk on the Moon. The mission, which was also crewed by astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, was already considered fairly routine. Then an oxygen tank exploded on the way there. The disaster prompted Swigert to famously tell mission control: "Houston, we've had a problem." Lovell then repeated the phrase, which is slightly different to the one used in the Ron Howard movie, according to NASA. The three astronauts and crew on the ground scrambled to find a solution. The United States followed the chaotic odyssey from the ground, fearing that the country could lose its first astronauts in space. Around 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew was forced to shelter in their Lunar Module, slingshot around the Moon and rapidly return to Earth. The composed leadership of Lovell -- who was nicknamed "Smilin' Jim" -- and the ingenuity of the NASA team on the ground managed to get the crew safely back home. Lovell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but never returned to space. 'Our Hero' Born on March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell worked as a Navy pilot before joining NASA. He was one of three astronauts who became the first people to orbit the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The mission also took the famous image "Earthrise," in which the blue planet peeks out from beyond the Moon. Lovell's family said they were "enormously proud of his amazing life and career," according to a statement released by NASA. "But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero," the statement added. "We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible." Agence France-Presse
