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James Lovell, the stable astronaut that brought Apollo 13 safely home, has died

    After the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell was named Deputy Director of Science and Applications in Nasa's Manned SpaceCraft Center (today, Johnson Space Center) before retired on 1 March 1973 from both the Space Agency and the Navy. Lovell became Chief Executive Officer of Bay-Houston Towing Company in 1975 and then President of Fisk Telefoon Systems in 1977.

    On January 1, 1981, Lovell joined Centel Corporation as a Group Vice President for Business Communications Systems and, 10 years later, withdrew as Executive Vice President and member of the company's board.

    For 11 years, from 1967 to 1978, Lovell served as a consultant and then chairman of the Physical Fitness Council (today, the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition). He was a member of the board of various organizations, including Federal Signal Corporation in Chicago from 1984 to 2003 and the Astronautics Corporation of America in Milwaukee from 1990 to 1999. He was also chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation from 1997 to 2005.

    Performances and prizes

    From 1999 to 2006, Lovell helped “Lovell's of Lake Forest” to run, a restaurant that he and his family opened in Illinois. (The restaurant was then sold to Jay, the son of Lovell, but eventually closed in 2015.)

    In 1994 Lovell worked with Jeffrey Kluger to publish Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13which was later tested Apollo 13 After serving as a basis for the Ron Howard film.

    In addition to being played by Hanks and having a cameo in Apollo 13Lovell was also depicted by Tim Daly in the HBO mini -series of 1998 From the earth to the moon and Pablo Schreiber in the Biopic of 2018 Neil Armstrong First man. Lovell also appeared in the 1976 film The man who fell on earth.

    A man in a blue escape suit and Ballap shakes his hands with a man in a business suit outside under a clear blue sky

    Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 Commander, shakes hands with President Richard Nixon after the presidential medal of Freedom on Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii, to be presented in 1970.


    Credit: NASA

    For its service at the US Space Program, Lovell received the NASA Distinguished Service and Exceptional Service Medals; The Congressional Space Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a member of the Gemini 7, Gemini 12 and Apollo 8 censuses, Lovell was donated the Harmon International Trophy three times and, with his Apollo 8 crew members, the Robert J. Collier and Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophies and was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year before 1968.