Training and instructor driver, Lovell was selected as astronaut in 1962 and participated in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He stole twice with Gemini, first during the Gemini 7 mission in 1965, then on Gemini 12 in 1966. With his four trips in space, Jim Lovell remains the first man to have made as many space missions, and one of the 24 men to have left the terrestrial orbit to go to the moon, even being the first to fly there twice.
Jim Lovell is also the author of the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 (1994), which recounts its famous mission and will inspire the film Apollo 13released in 1995 with Tom Hanks in the main role. The captain of the mission, then on the verge of drama, had expressed his fears in the days following the accident: “I am afraid that it was the last lunar mission before a long time”, he said, a prophecy which, with hindsight, still resonates in the history of spatial exploration.
With its departure, NASA loses one of its legendary heroes, a man who marked the history of space exploration and whose heritage continues to inspire generations of astronauts.
