ICYMI: A Conversation With Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It captured the world's attention as America's third attempt to get to the moon. But after only two days, an explosion crippled the spacecraft and changed its mission: Get home safely.
The three astronauts onboard, and dozens of flight controllers on Earth, labored for days to solve one challenge after another.
Captain Jim Lovell commanded that mission—after a series of historical firsts with his flights on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8.
In 2020, 1A's Todd Zwillich spoke to the captain about that historic flight on its 50th anniversary. We revisit the conversation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc Jen White, and this is in case you missed it, |
| 0:30.6 | where we bring you some of our favorite conversations that you might have missed. |
| 0:34.4 | Commander and astronaut James A. Lovell Jr. died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois at the age of 97. He was one of the three-man Apollo 13 spacecraft crew that set for the moon in April 1970. |
| 0:49.2 | Apollo 13 captured the world's attention after an explosion crippled the spacecraft. The three astronauts and |
| 0:55.5 | dozens of flight controllers labored for days to solve one challenge after another to get the crew |
| 1:01.2 | home safely. The mission has become known as NASA's most successful failure. Captain Jim Lovell commanded |
| 1:09.0 | that mission after a series of historical firsts with his flights on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8. |
| 1:16.2 | He was a Navy test pilot before working with NASA. |
| 1:19.6 | He spoke to 1A's Todd's Willick about the historic flight during the 50th anniversary of the mission, |
| 1:24.5 | and we revisit that conversation after the break. Stay with us. |
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| 1:46.1 | C's apply. |
| 1:51.1 | The evening of April 13th, 1970, was a Monday. |
| 2:00.1 | Millions of Americans were at home, and just as the prime time 9 p.m. hour came to a close, |
| 2:06.1 | the crew of Apollo 13 was staging a tour of the Lunar Module Aquarius |
| 2:10.2 | and the command module Odyssey for the TV audiences back. |
| 2:14.4 | This is the crew of Apollo 13. |
| 2:16.9 | We should never everybody there. |
| 2:18.4 | Nice evening. |
| 2:19.6 | Many Americans were watching the Monday night movie on ABC or NBC, but no one was watching |
... |
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