Lake Forest Space Pioneer Jim Lovell Honored By Illinois Senate With Statewide Recognition

LAKE FOREST, IL — The Illinois State Senate has declared Dec. 21, 2024, as Captain James A. Lovell Day in honor of the Lake Forest resident and oldest living NASA astronaut.

Senate Resolution 1280, recognizing Lovell for his leadership and his decades of service to the nation, was adopted Nov. 21 and sponsored by Sen. Julie Morrison, a Lake Forest Democrat, with chief co-sponsor Sen. Steve McClure, a Litchfield Republican.

“I can't think of anyone more deserving of the honor. His leadership on Apollo 13 will never be forgotten, nor will his service aboard Apollo 8,” McClure said in a statement. “Captain Lovell is an American hero, and all Illinoisans are proud that he chooses to call our great state home.”

Lovell is most famous for the phrase, "Houston, we have a problem," as commander of the Apollo 13 mission — though his actual words were "Houston, we've had a problem here" — when an oxygen tank explosion crippled his spacecraft in April 1970, turning a lunar landing mission into a fight for survival as he and his crew safety navigated the ship back to Earth safely.

But Lovell, 96, was also 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.

“James A. Lovell’s extraordinary courage and skills have left an indelible mark on human space exploration,” Morrison said in a statement. “His achievements have long inspired generations to dream big and persevere in the face of seemingly impossible challenges."

Born in Cleveland in 1928, Lovell graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to a distinguished naval and aerospace career, logging over 7,000 flying hours and more than 3,500 in jet aircraft.

After being selected as an astronaut in 1962, he took part in several historic missions, including Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. Lovell logged more than 715 hours in space during his military career, a record at the time of his retirement in 1973.

Lovell went on to serve in corporate leadership roles while contributing to numerous nonprofit organizations and earning countless awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. The federal health care center bearing his name at the Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago opened in 2010.

Despite his remarkable achievements, Lovell considers his family his greatest accomplishment, sharing decades of marriage and raising four children with his late wife Marilynn, according to the Senate resolution. He became the oldest living former astronaut in November 2023.

James A. Lovell Day will be celebrated next week on the 56th anniversary of Apollo 8, the first time humans traveled out of the Earth's gravitational influence and went around the moon.