NASA said Friday that American astronaut James A. “Jim” Lovell Jr., commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission, died on 7 August in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97. Lovell flew four space missions, spending more than 715 hours in orbit. His most famous flight, Apollo 13, launched on 11 April 1970 as the third planned Moon landing but was aborted when an oxygen-tank explosion crippled the spacecraft about 200,000 miles from Earth. Working with Mission Control, Lovell and crewmates Jack Swigert and Fred Haise used the lunar module as a lifeboat and splashed down safely on 17 April, turning what Lovell later called a “successful failure” into one of NASA’s defining moments. The former U.S. Navy test pilot also flew on Gemini 7 and Gemini 12 and served as command module pilot on Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon. The 1968 flight broadcast the iconic “Earthrise” image on Christmas Eve, cementing Lovell’s place in space-exploration history even before Apollo 13. Born in Cleveland on 25 March 1928, Lovell was selected as an astronaut in 1962 and retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973. His honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. He is survived by four children, 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; a memorial service is being planned at the U.S. Naval Academy.