Portal:Wisconsin/Selected biography/7

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Jim Lovell is a former NASA astronaut, most notable as the commander of Apollo 13, which suffered an explosion enroute to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. Lovell is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell's family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Juneau High School. Later he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years. He continued on to the United States Naval Academy and, after graduating in 1952, entered the United States Navy where he served in the Korean War. He spent four years as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center (now the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School) in Patuxent River, Maryland. He was selected in 1962 for the second group of NASA astronauts.

On April 11, 1970, Lovell took off on Apollo 13 with Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, planning to land on the Moon along with Haise. But on April 13, a damaged stir coil in a cryogenic oxygen tank sparked during a routine tank stir, triggering an explosion that crippled the Command Module "Odyssey." Venting oxygen from the damaged system, the vessel quickly lost most of both its breathable air supply and its electrical system. Apollo 13's lunar landing mission was aborted and the goal became simply survival. Using the lunar module's engine, oxygen and power, Lovell and his crew swung around the Moon on a free-return trajectory. Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth on April 17.