James Arthur Lovell Jr.
Astronaut

Date of Birth: March 25, 1928
Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio
Joined NASA: September 17, 1962
Left NASA: March 1, 1973
Space Flights: 4
Time in Space: 29 days, 19 hours, 3 minutes
MISSION ASSIGNMENTS
Gemini 4
Assignment: Back-up Pilot

Gemini 7
December 4-18, 1965
Assignment: Pilot
Flight Duration: 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes

Gemini 8
Assignment: Capcom

Gemini 9A
Assignment: Back-up Command Pilot & Capcom

Gemini 12
November 11-15, 1966
Assignment: Command Pilot
Flight Duration: 3 days, 22 hours, 34 minutes

Apollo 8
December 21-27, 1968
Assignment: Command Module Pilot
Flight Duration: 6 days, 3 hours

Apollo 11
Assignment: Back-up Commander & Capcom

Apollo 13
April 11-17, 1970
Assignment: Commander
Flight Duration: 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes
Note: The moon landing was aborted due to an explosion in the service module, the crew returned safely to Earth. Lovell would have been the 5th man to walk on the moon.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • B.Sc., United States Naval Academy, 1952

  • Joined the US Navy following graduation, attended the US Naval Postgraduate School, completed test pilot training and served for 4 years as a Test Pilot at the US Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland.

  • 1965, served as the Pilot of Gemini 7, a two week long duration mission to study the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body.

  • 1966, Command Pilot of Gemini 12, the final mission in the Gemini program featuring over 5 hours of EVA by his crewmate Buzz Aldrin.

  • 1968, CMP of Apollo 8 on mankinds first voyage to the moon completing 10 lunar orbits and photographing possible future landing sites.

  • 1970, CDR of Apollo 13, became the first man to enter space 4 times and to travel to the moon twice. Following the successful recovery of the aborted lunar landing mission, held the record for the longest time in space until the Skylab missions of the mid seventies.

  • 1973, retired from NASA and the US Navy to join Bay-Houston Towing Co. in Houston, Texas becoming President and Chief Executive Officer in March 1975.

  • 1975, became President of Fisk Telephone Systems in Houston.

  • 1981, Group Vice-President, Business Communications Systems, Centel Corp., retiring as Executive Vice-President in 1991.

  • 1994, Author of "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13".

  • 1996, uncredited role in the Ron Howard film, "Apollo 13" as the Captain of the recovery ship seen shaking hands with the lead character Tom Hanks after the successful recovery of the crew.

  • Currently the owner and operator of "Lovell's of Lake Forest", a fine dining establishment in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.