Latest news with #missioncontrol
The National
4 days ago
- Science
- The National
Apollo 13 captain who coined 'Houston, we have a problem' dies at age 97
Jim Lovell, the US astronaut who led the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and helped guide its crew safely back to Earth after a mid-flight explosion, died at the age of 97 on Thursday. Mr Lovell was at the centre of one of Nasa 's most dramatic episodes when an oxygen tank on the spacecraft exploded on April 13, 1970, two days after launch. The mission was meant to be the third crewed landing on the Moon, but the explosion damaged its power and life-support systems. 'Houston, we've had a problem,' Mr Lovell told mission control in words that have since become part of space-flight history. The phrase was later popularised as 'Houston, we have a problem'. Tributes from space community Tributes to Mr Lovell came from Nasa, former astronauts and wider space community after his death was announced on Friday. Nasa acting administrator Sean Duffy said in a statement that the agency sent its condolences to the family of Mr Lovell, 'whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decade'. 'Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learnt an enormous amount,' he said. 'We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.' Dr Buzz Aldrin, the second person to work on the Moon, said that was he was 'grieving the loss of one of my best friends'. 'Our mutual respect had no limits. The Gemini XII mission we flew together paved the way for the Apollo missions. Heartfelt condolences to Jim's family. Farewell Jim. You will be missed, my friend. Godspeed,' he said. Impressive career After the explosion aboard the Apollo 13 mission, Mr Lovell and his crewmates, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, worked with engineers on the ground over the next four days to come up with solutions. They conserved power, repurposed spacecraft systems and navigated a complex return trajectory that brought them home to a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The episode was later described by Nasa as a 'successful failure' because, while the original mission was lost, the crew's survival was more important. Mr Lovell's space career spanned four missions, including two to the Moon, though he landed on the surface. He was command module pilot of Apollo 8 in 1968, the first mission to orbit the Moon, giving humanity its first close-up views of the lunar surface and the famous Earthrise photograph taken by William Anders. Earlier, he flew on Gemini 7 and Gemini 12, pioneering the rendezvous, docking and spacewalking techniques that were essential in the Apollo programme. After retiring from Nasa and the US Navy in 1973, Mr Lovell co-wrote the memoir Lost Moon, which became the basis for the 1995 film Apollo 13. Actor Tom Hanks portrayed him on screen, and Mr Lovell made a cameo appearance in the film. Mr Lovell is survived by his four children. His wife, Marilyn, who he was married to for almost 70 years, died in 2023.
Condé Nast Traveler
17-07-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
How I Travel: Taylor Jenkins Reid Uses Road Trips to Combat Writer's Block
Why the Johnson Space Center should be at the top of any Houston visitor's list: I spent the majority of my Houston trip doing a very long VIP tour of the Johnson Space Center, which was incredible. If anyone is interested in NASA or space exploration or specifically mission control and how it works, I highly recommend this tour and the one that I did into the Apollo-era mission control. We got to see not just the telemetry, but the desks and theater behind it. We went into the mission control of the current ISS, stood in the theater and looked out onto that floor. We also went into a decommissioned Space Shuttle, into the mid-deck and the payload bay. For anybody interested in NASA at all, it's such a great trip. A city on book tours that has really surprised her: I went to Ann Arbor for this past book, and I really loved it. One of the things about being on a book tour is that you don't really get to see that much of the space that you're in, necessarily. You go from the airport to the hotel to the event and back to the airport so quickly. One of the things I love to do on every book tour is [take in] the drive from the hotel to the location. Sometimes it's five minutes but other times it's 45 minutes and you get to see how the city changes, what parts are leafy and what parts are more congested. I loved driving through Ann Arbor. I think I hit it at the right moment, the top of June, which might just be a particularly beautiful time. I was really taken on that tiny car ride to the location, which was on the university campus. The buildings were beautiful, the architecture was beautiful. I went through some winding suburbs that were so green and lush. I remember thinking, I don't know, should I move to Ann Arbor?! Maybe I should.
Bloomberg
07-07-2025
- Science
- Bloomberg
Denver City Hall Takes a Page From NASA
'Houston, we have a problem.' Those five words, transmitted from space after an on-board explosion 55 hours into NASA's 1970 Apollo 13 mission, echoed around the world, captivating more than 40 million Americans who watched on TV as the three orbiting astronauts accomplished the seemingly impossible: safely returning to Earth. What most people didn't realize at the time was that the on-the-ground crew was well-suited for the crisis. Every step that ensured the astronauts' safety was guided by a small, cross-disciplinary unit of NASA experts — eventually dubbed a 'tiger team' — that was quickly assembled to devise makeshift strategies and engineering workarounds to preserve enough oxygen, water and electricity to save the imperiled trio in the damaged capsule.
CNN
05-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Ispace loses contact with Resilience vehicle during lunar landing attempt
Resilience, a lander built by Japanese-based company Ispace, lost contact with mission control during its attempt to land on the moon.
