USN Capt. James Lovell 1928-2025

Mission Commander Capt. Jim Lovell aboard Apollo 13 in 1970. (Photo Credit: NASA)

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Apollo and Gemini astronaut U.S. Navy Capt. James "Jim" Lovell on Aug. 7. In 2018, it was a thrilling privilege to meet Capt. Lovell on the phone to talk about the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, and his experience on  history's first crewed mission to orbit the moon. The opportunity to interview Capt. Lovell was among the highest honors of my journalism career. 

During our chat, Capt. Lovell lived up to his easy-going reputation. He also was very generous with his time and his stories.

He told me that humans should return to the moon someday. “We’ve only scratched the surface of exploring the moon and what it could offer us,” he said. Once humans develop the rockets and other infrastructure to return to the moon, then the technology “could be expanded to go to Mars.” But he added, “I think it’s going to be a long time before anybody goes to Mars.”

Below is a transcript of some of the highlights of our conversation that I'd like to share as a tribute to Capt. Lovell's extraordinary career and his dedicated service to his country as a pilot, astronaut and explorer.

FIRST SOLO FLIGHT

Q: Do you recall the first time you flew solo — during Navy flight training in Pensacola, Florida?

CAPT. LOVELL: “It was an SNJ — the basic [training airplane] of that period — around 1953. … It gave me a sense of what it was like to escape from the Earth for the first time. I didn’t have much aviation experience when I went into flight training. The only time I was even in an airplane was when I was a little bit smaller, my father took me up in a company biplane when I was about eight. And that was it. Flying was something new to me. My uncle was an early aviator. He was the 58th aviator in the Navy, and so I  kind of wanted to follow him.” [Lovell said he had his own airplane — but stopped flying it in 2012.] “My wife couldn’t get into the airplane any longer because she had had a knee replacement, so she looked at me and said, “Your flying days are over, sell the airplane.”

MOUNT MARILYN

Q: You famously named a mountain on the moon after your wife, Marilyn Lovell. How did that come about?

CAPT. LOVELL: “We were [scouting locations for] the first landing in the Sea of Tranquility and this little triangular mountain seemed to be an initial point for the beginning of the descent. Just so we could tell Mission Control where we were, I said, ‘I’m going to name this little triangular mountain Mount Marilyn, after my wife.’ It was just between us — the Apollo 8 crew and Mission Control. … Later, when we flew over Mount Marilyn, we mentioned it. It sort of took hold. Apollo 10 needed an initial point too … as they went over it, they even took a picture of Mount Marilyn. On Apollo 11 they actually used it as the initial point of the landing. … Over the years it certainly has taken on a life of its own. … Within the last year, I thought I’d like to have that officially recognized as the name. Most of these are named after ancient astronomers. I applied to see if we could officially name that little triangular mountain Mount Marilyn. At first it was rejected — not scientific enough. Then there was a change and people said, ‘We need a little romance in the Apollo Program and this is a good idea.’ So on July 27, the International Astronomical Union made it official, naming it Mount Marilyn. It couldn’t have come at a better time because she was having some medical problems and this really boosted her morale. Now she’s fine and getting much better.”

HANGING OUT WITH LINDBERGH

Q: Looking back half a century, what does Apollo 8 mean to you and the space program?

CAPT. LOVELL: “I was the backup on Apollo 11 and when it became obvious that Neil (Armstrong) was going to go on launch day, I took Charles Lindbergh out to the beach watch the launch. I said to Lindbergh, ‘Look at that spacecraft out there. It’s going to try to land on the moon.’ He looked at it for a while and I think he was thinking about his own 34-hour trip across the ocean to Paris. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be be quite a feat. But it’s Apollo 8 that I really remember. That long, 240,000-mile initial journey to the moon was something I will always remember.’ And I always remember that he said that, because I think it’s true. I really believe that Apollo 8 was the pioneer of the Apollo Program. … I think it’s the best flight I was on. Apollo 13 was the most challenging because we had the accident. But Apollo 8 was the first to open up people’s eyes about where we stand in the universe.”

MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT

Q: If your Apollo 8 spacecraft’s engine failed to restart, you could have been stranded in lunar orbit. Recall for me that make-or-break moment when you pushed the button to restart the engine.

CAPT. LOVELL: “I was the navigator and also had control of the computer. So we had to tell the computer to do things. But the computer actually started the engines. … We desperately wanted to make sure that everything worked. The button went on and for a brief instant, nothing happened. Then all of a sudden the engine started again. Then as the engine was burning and we were increasing our velocity I could see on the computer the velocity increasing. And then when it shut off, it got to the proper increase in velocity that was required to exit the moon’s gravity. And of course that’s when I said those words to Houston, ‘Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.’”

TALK OF LANDING ON THE MOON

CAPT. LOVELL: “It’s kind of interesting: There was some talk about the Apollo 8 crew being assigned later to do the first landing [on the moon.] In fact I think NASA management asked [Apollo 8 commander] Frank [Borman] if he if wanted to take the crew and do the first landing. He said, ‘No, I don’t want to land there just to pick up rocks.’ His idea was to beat the Russians and that was it. [Fellow Apollo 8 crewman Bill] Anders and I didn’t hear about that until long after. I would have declined to be part of that crew because I was the command module pilot on Apollo 8 and the command module pilot merely orbits the moon, while the other two go down and land on it, so I wouldn’t have wanted to just repeat what I had already done.”

PREPARING FOR THE WORST: FAREWELL LETTERS

CAPT. LOVELL: “It’s kind of interesting too, the attitudes of the three of us [Apollo 8 crewmen]. Borman and Anders both left behind final farewell letters and videotape to their wives in case they didn’t come back. I didn’t do that. I had a positive attitude. I figured if I was going to have to write a goodbye letter to my wife Marilyn, then I shouldn’t have gone in the first place. Consequently my approach to Apollo 8 was positive.”

FLYING A WASHING MACHINE

Q: As her character did in the film "Apollo 13," did your mother really say, “If a washing machine could fly, my Jimmy could fly it”?

CAPT. LOVELL: “I suspect that was made up by the scriptwriters, I’m not too sure. But she had a lot of faith in me and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had come up with a comment like that.”

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