Happy 87th birthday James Lovell

Today we celebrate the 87^th birthday of one of the most famous astronauts of the Gemini and Apollo programs. A man that flew on four mission (Gemini 7 & 12, Apollo 8, &13) and survived the most infamous missions in NASA history. A man that would go on to be enshrined in both the United States Astronauts hall of fame and the National Aviation hall of fame. That man is James A. Lovell Jr.

On this date in 1928 James Arthur Lovell Jr. was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly after he was born hi parents moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he grew up building model rockets and dreaming of one day traveling into space. As many other children did of that era he went into scouting where he reached the level of eagle scout. He went on to go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison before transferring to the United States Naval Academy where he graduated in 1952.

In 1952 Mr. Lovell started his naval career where he flew F2H Banshee fighters. After 6 years he enter a 6-month long test pilot training course. The same year that he became a test pilot Mr. Lovell applied to NASA to become one of the astronauts for the upcoming Mercury program. He was not selected in that group but later re-applied when there was a second call for astronauts for the Gemini program. In 1962 he became one of the second group of astronauts.

Not long after he started his career at NASA he was chosen to be part of the backup crew for Gemini 4. He later made his first flight when he was paired with Frank Borman to be the crew on Gemini 7. That flight made the first space rendezvous when it docked with Gemini 6A. Mr. Lovell's next flight was as part of the crew of Gemini 12 where he was teamed with Buzz Aldren, who later became the second man on the moon. His third mission was Apollo 8 where he was once again teamed with Frank Borman where along with William Ander became the first men to orbit the Moon. On that flight Mr. Lovell did a famous Christmas Eve reading of the first 10 verses of Genesis. His fourth flight was the infamous Apollo 13 where an explosion endangered the mission and crew. On that flight with the courageous work, of the crew (James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise) and mission control, Apollo 13 made it back to Earth.