62 Facts About Jim Lovell

Jim Lovell then commanded the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 which, after a critical failure en route, circled the Moon and returned safely to Earth.

Jim Lovell was then assigned to Electronics Test, working with radar, and in 1960 he became the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager.

Jim Lovell was not selected by NASA as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts due to a temporarily high bilirubin count.

Jim Lovell was accepted in September 1962 as one of the second group of astronauts needed for the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Jim Lovell was the first person to fly into space four times.

One of 24 people to have flown to the Moon, Jim Lovell was the first to fly to it twice.

Jim Lovell is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Jim Lovell co-authored the 1994 book Lost Moon, on which the 1995 film Apollo 13 was based.

Jim Lovell was featured in a cameo appearance in the film.

Jim Lovell was a member of the Boy Scouts during his childhood and eventually achieved Eagle Scout, the organization's highest rank.

Jim Lovell became interested in rocketry and built flying models as a teenager.

Jim Lovell secured a nomination from his local US Representative, John C Brophy, and entered Annapolis in July 1948.

Jim Lovell graduated in the spring of 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy.

Jim Lovell was one of 50 members of his graduating class of 783 initially selected for naval aviation training.

Jim Lovell went to flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola from October 1952 to February 1954.

Jim Lovell was designated a naval aviator on February 1,1954, upon completion of pilot training, and was assigned to VC-3 at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California.

In January 1958, Jim Lovell entered a six-month test pilot training course at what was then the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, with Class 20, which included future astronauts Wally Schirra and Pete Conrad, who gave Jim Lovell the nickname "Shaky".

Usually the top graduate was assigned to flight test on graduation, but the head of electronics test had complained about never getting the top graduate, so Jim Lovell was assigned to electronics test, where he worked with radar sets.

Schirra went on to become one of the Mercury Seven, but Jim Lovell was not selected because of a temporarily high bilirubin count.

In 1960, electronics test was merged with armaments test to become weapons test, and Jim Lovell became the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager.

In 1961 Jim Lovell received orders for VF-101 "Detachment Alpha" at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as a flight instructor and safety engineering officer, and he completed Aviation Safety School at the University of Southern California.

Conrad and Jim Lovell built houses in Timber Cove, south of the Manned Spacecraft Center.

Jim Lovell was selected as backup pilot for Gemini 4, which was officially announced on July 29,1964.

Borman was a USAF officer, and Jim Lovell had first met him during the evaluation process for astronaut selection.

Jim Lovell was present at the Launch Control Center at Cape Kennedy when this occurred.

Jim Lovell was taller than Borman and had more difficulty donning and removing his space suit.

On January 24,1966, Jim Lovell was named as the backup command pilot of Gemini 10, with Aldrin as the pilot.

Jim Lovell climbed across the newly installed hand-holds to the Agena and installed the cable needed for the gravity-gradient stabilization experiment.

Jim Lovell performed several tasks, including installing electrical connectors and testing tools that would be needed for Apollo.

Jim Lovell did not want to grab it, as he feared he might pull on the D-ring that activated the ejector seat.

At the time, Jim Lovell was in Washington, DC, where, along with fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and Richard Gordon, he had attended the signing of the Outer Space Treaty and the reception afterwards in the Green Room of the White House hosted by President Lyndon Johnson.

Four days later, Jim Lovell flew to West Point, New York, with Borman in a NASA T-38 for the funeral service for White at the Old Cadet Chapel.

Jim Lovell was originally chosen as command module pilot on the backup crew for Apollo 9 along with Armstrong as commander and Aldrin as lunar module pilot.

Jim Lovell later replaced Michael Collins as CMP on the Apollo 9 prime crew in July 1968 when Collins needed to have surgery for a bone spur on his spine.

Jim Lovell took his turn with Borman and Anders in reading a passage from the Biblical creation story in the Book of Genesis.

Jim Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view stars by using the Apollo guidance computer keyboard.

Jim Lovell accidentally erased some of the computer's memory by entering the wrong codes, which caused the inertial measurement unit to contain data indicating that the module was in the same relative orientation it had been in before lift-off; the IMU then fired the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.

Sixteen months later, during the Apollo 13 mission, Jim Lovell would have to perform a similar manual realignment under even more critical conditions after the module's IMU had been turned off to conserve energy.

Jim Lovell was backup CDR of Apollo 11, with Anders as CMP, and Haise as LMP.

Jim Lovell lifted off aboard Apollo 13 on April 11,1970.

Jim Lovell is one of only three men to travel to the Moon twice, but unlike the other two, John Young and Gene Cernan, he never walked on it.

Jim Lovell accrued 715 hours and 5 minutes in space flights on his Gemini and Apollo flights, a personal record that stood until the Skylab 3 mission in 1973.

Jim Lovell retired from the Navy and the space program on March 1,1973, and went to work at the Bay-Houston Towing Company in Houston, Texas, taking on the role of CEO in 1975.

Jim Lovell became president of Fisk Telephone Systems in 1977, and later worked for Centel Corporation in Chicago, retiring as an executive vice president on January 1,1991.

Jim Lovell was a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Jim Lovell was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Silver Buffalo Award.

Jim Lovell served on the board of directors for several organizations, including Federal Signal Corporation in Chicago from 1984 to 2003, the Astronautics Corporation of America in his hometown of Milwaukee from 1990 to 1999, and Centel from 1987 to 1991.

In 1999, the Jim Lovell family opened a restaurant in Lake Forest, Illinois, "Jim Lovell's of Lake Forest".

Jim Lovell received a second Harmon International Trophy in 1967 when he and Aldrin were selected for their Gemini 12 flight.

The Apollo 8 crew won the Robert J Collier Trophy for 1968, and President Richard Nixon awarded them the Dr Robert H Goddard Memorial Trophy in 1969, which Lovell accepted on behalf of the crew.

Jim Lovell was awarded a third Harmon International Trophy in 1969 for his role in the Apollo 8 mission.

Jim Lovell was one of ten Gemini astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982, and, along with the other 12 Gemini astronauts, Jim Lovell was inducted into the second US Astronaut Hall of Fame class in 1993.

At a parade attended by 500,000 people, Jim Lovell was conferred Chicago's medal of merit.

The Apollo 13 crew was awarded the City of New York Gold Medal, but Jim Lovell had already received it for the Apollo 8 mission.

Jim Lovell was awarded the 1970 City of Houston Medal for Valor for the mission.

Jim Lovell was awarded his second Haley Astronautics Award for his role on Apollo 13.

Jim Lovell was featured on the cover of Time magazine on January 3,1969, and April 27,1970, and on the cover of Life magazine on April 24,1970.

Jim Lovell was a recipient of the University of Wisconsin's Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1970.

Jim Lovell was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree at Western Michigan University's summer commencement exercises in 1970.

Jim Lovell was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree at William Paterson College's commencement exercises in 1974.

In 1976, Jim Lovell made a cameo appearance in the Nicolas Roeg movie The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Jim Lovell can be seen as the naval officer shaking Hanks' hand, as Hanks speaks in voice-over, in the scene where the astronauts come aboard the Iwo Jima.