NASA’s astronaut, commander of the Apollo 13 mission who survived an explosion when he approached the Moon in April 1970, died in the state of Illinois, United States, according to the US space agency on Friday. He was 97 years old.
Captain Lovell, former Marine Testing Pilot, flew for about 715 hours in space, more than any other astronaut of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, created by the United States in the sixties. Lovell was one of the astronauts who embodied the American ideal, at a time when he made a handful of men in popular heroes.
In June 1962, NASA announced to the “new nine.” These would be in charge of fulfilling man (the American rather than the Soviet) to the moon. It was the most select group of aviators ever gathered. Among them was Jim Lovell.
The commander failed to fulfill his great dream and step on the moon. He traveled four times to space, although the most remembered of all was in the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, which had to abort the moon landing provided by the explosion of an oxygen tank days after takeoff. Told this experience in the book Apollo 13published in 1994.
“His serenity and strength under pressure helped the crew to return healthy and save the earth and demonstrated the speed of thought and innovation inspired by NASA’s future missions,” said the US agency in a statement.
Although the famous phrase is wrongly assigned, nor was it said in that way, nor was it the one who first pronounced it. His partner, Jack Swigert, said: “Ok, Houston, we have a problem here”, to which Lovell added: “Eh, Houston, we had a problem.”
However, the famous ninety film, Apolo XIIIadapted the phrase, which became part of popular culture and is frequently used to indicate that something is wrong. In this movie, give life to Lovell. The winner of Dos Oscars, has remembered the astronaut in social networks. “On this full moon night, he starts to heaven, towards the cosmos, towards the stars. May God accompany you on this next trip, Jim Lovell,” he said on Instagram.
NASA has also wanted to remember its figure with these words: “The unwavering character and courage of Jim helped our nation to reach the moon and transformed a possible tragedy into a success from which we learned a lot. We regret his death while celebrating his achievements.”
