Astronaut, Apollo 13 Commander, Dies At 97 In Illinois

LAKE FOREST, IL — The American astronaut who commanded the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its lunar journey in 1970, James A. Lovell Jr., passed away Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois at 97 years old.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced his death in a statement, which did not include a cause.

"NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades. 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. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements," NASA said in a statement.

Lovell's family also made a statement about his passing:

"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.

"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 family. Most importantly, he was our Hero. We will miss his unshakable 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.”

The Apollo 13 mission is one of the most well-recognized U.S. space missions in history, behind John Glenn’s orbit of the Earth in 1962 and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. The iconic voyage became the subject of a movie in 1995 starring Tom Hanks as Lovell.

NASA considers the Apollo 13 mission a “successful failure.” The mission that started out as humanity’s third lunar landing turned into a rescue mission for the three crew members Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert.

During the voyage, the Saturn V rocket’s number two oxygen tank exploded and Lovell noticed they were “venting something out into the…into space.” The explosion damaged another oxygen tank, which made it impossible to use the fuel cells powering electricity and water.

Moon landing now scrapped, the plan was to enter “lifeboat mode” to save the space craft and crew. While already experiencing a shortage of water and electrical power, the crew also encountered dangerous levels of carbon dioxide.

It was on this voyage that Lovell coined the famous phrase "Houston, we have a problem," — though his actual words were "Houston, we've had a problem here."

The crew returned to Earth six days later on April 17, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Samoa.

“As commander of the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell’s calm strength under pressure helped return the crew safely to Earth and demonstrated the quick thinking and innovation that informed future NASA missions,” NASA said.

James Arthur Lovell Jr. was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928. He joined NASA as an astronaut in 1962 and completed four space missions and logged 715 hours in space.

He was the first person to travel to the moon twice, the first person to fly into space four times and part of the first crew to orbit the moon and to take part in a rendezvous of two maneuverable spacecraft with human crews.

Lovell married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Gerlach, who died in 2023, and they had four children.

“From a pair of pioneering Gemini missions to the successes of Apollo, Jim helped our nation forge a historic path in space that carries us forward to upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond,” NASA said.

Captain Lovell opened a restaurant in Lake Forest, Illinois in 1999, called Lovell’s, later selling it to his son and daughter-in-law. The NorthShore University HealthSystem bought the building and transformed it into medical office space.

Lovell’s son Jay and his wife Darice opened up another restaurant in Highwood in 2014.

In 2024, The Illinois State Senate declared Dec. 21 as Captain James A Lovell Day in his honor as the oldest living NASA astronaut at the time.