Jim Lovell
Jim Lovell
James Arthur "Jim" Lovell, Jr.is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. He is a recipient of the Congressional Space...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth25 March 1928
CountryUnited States of America
I didnt go into the NASA program to pick up rocks or to go the moon or anything else. I went in there because I was a military officer, and that was the next notch in my profession.
The Moon is essentially gray - no color - looks like plaster of paris - soft of gray sand.
It looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something into the-into the space.
The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything youve ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy.
Well, Frank, my thoughts are very similar. The vast loneliness up here at the moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize what you have back there on earth. The earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.
We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about the Earth. The fact that just from the distance of the Moon you can put your thumb up and you can hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything that you've ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself-all behind your thumb. And how insignificant we really all are, but then how fortunate we are to have this body and to be able to enjoy loving here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself.
When I circled the moon and looked back at Earth, my outlook on life and my viewpoint of Earth changed... Earth is a spaceship, just like Apollo - and just like Apollo, the crew must learn to live and work together. We must learn to manage the resources of this world with new imagination.
The training in those days was rather ad hoc because the people running NASA were basically engineers,
We hadn't seen any rats or evidence of rats until the school district started the eradication program, and then we started to see evidence of the rats moving across the fence line.
The fascination to go into space has existed for hundreds of years. But as we do things and they're successful, people get bored.
I would suspect strongly that over a period of time, if we put our mind to going to Mars, it will be a consortium of several countries.
I didn't go into the NASA program to pick up rocks or to go the moon or anything else. I went in there because I was a military officer, and that was the next notch in my profession.
Boys like either dinosaurs or airplanes. I was very much an airplane boy.
The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand.