Overview

• NASA confirmed Lovell died on August 7 at age 97 after a storied career with the agency.
• As Apollo 13 commander he guided the crew safely home after an oxygen tank explosion 200,000 miles from Earth by jury-rigging the lunar module as a lifeboat.
• Lovell flew four pivotal missions—Gemini 7 and 12, Apollo 8’s first crewed lunar orbit, and the ill-fated Apollo 13—helping pioneer rendezvous maneuvers and spacewalk techniques.
• He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and has a lunar crater named in his honor, and his 1994 memoir Lost Moon inspired the 1995 film Apollo 13.
• With Lovell’s death Buzz Aldrin is now the oldest surviving Apollo-era astronaut.