3 days ago
I Remember James Lovell
I once had the pleasure of interviewing Apollo 13 commander James Lovell when I was a reporter at The Globe and Mail.
It was in 2009 and I was writing a story to mark the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first moon landing.
My goal was to gather the recollections of as many of the original Apollo astronauts as possible.
I tracked Mr. Lovell down at his home in Lake Forest, Ill., and he gladly agreed to a telephone chat.
Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97
Mr. Lovell had also been part of the three-man crew of Apollo 8, the first mission to leave Earth and orbit the moon, a critical preparatory step to an actual landing.
During that December 1968 flight, one of the astronauts snapped the now iconic photo showing the beautiful blue Earth rising over a grey and lifeless lunar surface – an image that helped inspire the nascent environmental movement.
Seeing the Earth from such a great distance changed 'my understanding of my position in the universe,' he recalled. 'I looked back at my homeland and found out how small it was.'
In April, 1970, Lovell returned to the moon as commander of Apollo 13. This time, he and fellow astronaut Fred Haise were scheduled to land on the moon. But on the outbound voyage, an oxygen tank on the spacecraft's service module exploded. 'Houston, we've had a problem,' the crew radioed back to mission control. Plans for the landing had to be scrapped, and in next few days the astronauts and ground support worked frantically to bring the ship home before the power and oxygen ran out. When the capsule's parachutes opened over the Pacific Ocean, signalling their safe return, millions of anxious onlookers breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Mr. Lovell told me he initially considered Apollo 13 to be a failure and was extremely disappointed that he had lost his chance to walk on the moon. However, he recalled that, years later, while co-writing a book about the experience, he came to a different conclusion. 'It was really a triumph,' he said because it showed that people 'can change an almost certain catastrophe into a successful recovery.' All you need is the 'proper leadership, teamwork and initiative.'
His book became the basis for the acclaimed 1995 film Apollo 13 in which actor Tom Hanks portrayed Mr. Lovell. The Hollywood attention helped turn Mr. Lovell into a kind of pop-cult figure. Yet the good-natured retired astronaut, with a self-deprecating sense of humour, remained unfazed by his fame.
When our interview was drawing to a close, Mr. Lovell asked me a question.
'You work for a Toronto newspaper, right?' he quizzed.
Then he said, 'my father was Canadian – he came from Toronto.'
The senior Lovell had moved to the United States for work and ended up marrying an American woman. The father died when his son was a child, yet the boy maintained his ties to Canada.
'As a kid, I used to go see my grandparents [in Toronto] all the time.' He noted that his father is buried in the city's Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Who would have imagined that this seemingly 'all-American' space hero has such deep Canadian roots.
Paul Taylor, Toronto
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