{"id":5836,"date":"2025-08-11T17:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/?page_id=5836"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T00:53:12","slug":"0000a-2025-08-07-capt-james-a-lovell","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/in-memoria\/0000a-2025-08-07-capt-james-a-lovell\/","title":{"rendered":"0000a. 2025\/08\/07 – Capt. James A. Lovell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"NASA portrait of James Lovell taken a year after his Apollo 8 circumlunar mission. Jim flew 4 missions during his career with NASA: Gemini VII with Frank Borman in Dec. 1965; Gemini XII with Buzz Aldrin in Nov. 1966; Apollo 8 with Frank Borman and Bill Anders in Dec. 1968; and Apollo 13 with Fred Haise and John Swigert in April 1970. (NASA photo, Dec. 1, 1969).<\/span><\/p>\n

Captain James A. Lovell\u2019s remarkable and historic career as a Navy aviator and test pilot, Gemini and Apollo astronaut, and business entrepreneur is without parallel. He served his family and his nation faithfully, with both extraordinary dedication, talent and humility. Prior to the long duration Skylab missions, he held the record for time in space at 715 hours and 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jim Lovell (left) and Frank Borman (right), the crew of Gemini VII, which was flown from Dec. 4 to 18, 1965 as the target rendezvous vehicle for Gemini VI-A. (NASA photo, S65-41825).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Gemini VII, commanded by Frank Borman with pilot Jim Lovell, as photographed from Gemini VI-A, commanded by Wally Schirra with pilot Tom Stafford. These missions marked the first time astronauts rendezvoused in space. In this photo, the two capsules are approximately 43 feet apart. (NASA photo, S65-63188)<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim and I first came into close contact soon after Frank Borman, Commander of 1968\u2019s Apollo 8, the first human flight to the Moon, recruited me to coordinate the lunar orbit flight planning for his mission. Jim was assigned to the mission as Command Module Pilot, along with Bill Anders as Lunar Module Pilot, and one of the mission objectives was to demonstrate a lunar navigation technique called \u201clunar landmark tracking.\u201d This procedure was envisioned at the time as needed to refine the orbital parameters of a spacecraft relative to the center of mass of the Moon and was essential to future \u201cpinpoint\u201d landings by Apollo crews.<\/p>\n

As I was spending several days a week at the training facility at the Kennedy Space Center in 1968 where the crew was training, working with Frank on flight planning and with Bill on lunar orbital observations and checklists, Jim asked if I would help him and the Lunar Module simulator operators develop the details of the lunar landmark tracking procedures. This would involve Jim hand-maneuvering the 60-power, star-sighting \u201csextant\u201d of the Command Module so that the optics were continuously pointed at a specific small crater on the lunar surface. The position of the crater could be tied to the Moon\u2019s center of mass by analysis of orbital data obtained from the earlier, unmanned Lunar Orbiter imaging spacecraft. Jim\u2019s task turned out not to be an easy one, but one which he demonstrated to perfection on the mission. Our precise landing of the Apollo 17 Challenger<\/em> spacecraft in the narrow valley of Taurus-Littrow<\/em> would not have been possible without the full implementation of this landmark tracking procedure (Chapter 10).<\/p>\n

While in orbit around the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968, Jim, Bill and Frank captivated much of the world with their reading from the Book of Genesis. This extraordinary recitation capped a space event that was witnessed, by radio, worldwide for the first time in history, bringing hope to hundreds of millions after a very difficult year.<\/p>\n

Jim had begun training for his Commander\u2019s role on Apollo 13 about the same time as I succeeded in persuading our boss, Al Shepherd, that the Astronaut Office should take charge of the geology training for lunar landing missions. My proposal to Shepherd was to base that training on varied field exercises that simulated lunar operations and equipment as well as possible geological problems and sampling conditions. The training up through Apollo 12 had been almost entirely comprised of boring lectures and show-and-tell field trips with little or no exposure to the actual operational techniques needed for spontaneous observation, sampling and photographic documentation. Shepherd agreed to the plan, provided I could convince Jim Lovell to incorporate the plan into his preparation for Apollo 13. After I outlined the plan during a meeting in his office, Jim immediately agreed to this new approach to geology training.<\/p>\n

My plan included having a top-notch field geologist as the mentor for each mission and to begin the training with a week-long, full emersion of the Prime and Backup Crews away from access to telephones and other interruptions. For this mission, the late Caltech Professor Lee Silver had agreed to that role. Although known largely as a geochemist, Silver was one of the best field geologists I ever encountered. Jim and Lee hit it off immediately and the emersion week of camping in the Oricopia Mountains of Southern California went extremely well, as did the more operationally oriented, monthly, 4\u20135-day long field trips on a variety of geological locations around the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"The crew of Apollo 13: Commander Jim Lovell (right), Command Module pilot John Swigert (center), and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise (left). (NASA photo, AS13-70-HC-541).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim\u2019s crew ended up being very well prepared for their mission to the Fra Mauro<\/em> site on the Imbrium<\/em> Basin ejecta blanket. Of course, the explosion of a Service Module oxygen tank on Apollo 13\u2019s way to the Moon turned the mission into one of survival rather than exploration. Jim and his crew, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, and their extraordinary performance in response to the unexpected, created one of the high points of America\u2019s space history. In addition, Jim\u2019s enthusiasm for the new geology training program and its results had a profound influence on future mission Commanders, particularly David Scott (Apollo 15) and John Young (Apollo 16).<\/p>\n

Other than occasional interactions through the following decades, Jim\u2019s service as the leader of Apollo 17\u2019s Science Support Room in Mission Control in 1972 was our last opportunity to work together, albeit mostly at a distance. He offered both the discipline and experience that my scientific and operational colleagues often needed to support the discoveries and challenges that came during the three lunar surface excursions we conducted on that mission.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jack Schmitt (left) and Jim Lovell (right) attend the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission on Dec. 1, 2018 at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apollo 8\u2019s Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn, along with Frank and Susan Borman and Bill and Valerie Anders, were unique among the astronaut couples of the Apollo era in their clear and enduring dedication to each other.<\/p>\n

God speed, Jim.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Harrison H. Schmitt, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA portrait of James Lovell taken a year after his Apollo 8 circumlunar mission. Jim flew 4 missions during his career with NASA: Gemini VII with Frank Borman in Dec. 1965; Gemini XII with Buzz Aldrin in Nov. 1966; Apollo 8 with Frank Borman and Bill Anders in Dec. 1968; and Apollo 13 with Fred … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “0000a. 2025\/08\/07 – Capt. James A. Lovell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1346,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5836","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9bNBl-1w8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5836"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5836\/revisions\/5859"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colinmackellar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}