Houston, ‘We’ve Had a Problem’: Jim Lovell and Apollo 13

In this latest installment of ‘When Character Counted,’ an even-keeled astronaut demonstrates how experience and love give us confidence to face disaster.

Astronaut James Lovell, his wife Marilyn, and two of their children arrive in Amsterdam in 1969. Public Domain

On Aug. 7, 2025, Jim Lovell died at the age of 97.

A Naval aviator and a test pilot, he joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) training program for crewed flights in 1962. On his Gemini 7 flight, he and fellow astronaut Frank Borman set a record for the longest number of days spent in space and for the first time rendezvoused with another spacecraft. Later he was aboard Gemini 12 with Buzz Aldrin, the last flight of the Gemini series.