James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97.

Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

“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,” NASA said. “We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”

One of NASA’s most traveled astronauts in the agency’s first decade, Lovell flew four times — Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 — with both Apollo flights riveting folks back on Earth.

In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the first to leave Earth’s orbit and the first to fly to and circle the moon. They could not land, but they put the U.S. ahead of the Soviets in the space race.

But the big rescue mission was still to come. That was during the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in April 1970. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon. But Apollo 13’s service module, carrying Lovell and two others, experienced a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its way to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending four cold and clammy days in the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat.

“The thing that I want most people to remember is in some sense it was very much of a success,’’ Lovell said during a 1994 interview. “Not that we accomplished anything, but a success in that we demonstrated the capability of [NASA] personnel.’’

A retired Navy captain known for his calm demeanor, Lovell told a NASA historian that his brush with death did affect him. “I don’t worry about crises any longer,” he said in 1999.

Lovell had ice water in his veins like other astronauts, but he didn’t display the swagger some had, just quiet confidence, said Smithsonian Institution historian Roger Launius.

“I think in the history of space flight ... that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program,” Gene Kranz, NASA’s legendary flight director, once said.

Source: AP
--Agencies