Apollo 13 Moon Mission Leader James Lovell Dies at 97

Jim Lovell commanded Apollo 13, the only Apollo mission scheduled to land on the Moon which did not. Lovell and his fellow astronauts, and the ground crew, overcame incredible odds in bringing the damaged spacecraft of Apollo 13 home to Earth.

CHICAGO (AP) — Astronaut James Lovell, who was commander of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission that managed to get back to earth safely after an oxygen tank explosion, has died. He was 97. NASA confirmed his death in a statement Friday. Lovell was also part of the Apollo 8 flight that became the first to circle the moon and was one of NASA’s most traveled astronauts through its early years, going into space four times. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon in 1970. But Apollo 13’s service module, carrying Lovell and two others, experienced an oxygen tank explosion. The famous statement “Houston, we have a problem” was attributed to Lovell in the film “Apollo 13.”