To Infinity and Beyond free essay sample

We all have vivid memories of those late summer evenings when the moon is so large we just want to reach out and touch it. James â€Å"Jim† Lovell also had this experience, but with one big difference: he got close enough to actually do it. In all of history, in all the millions and millions of people who have walked the Earth, only 12 were lucky enough and skilled enough to have had this experience. They didn’t just see it through some big, fancy telescope, but they saw it through the window of a NASA spaceship orbiting only feet away. Lovell happens to be one of those people. Not only did he visit the moon once, but he visited twice. Jim Lovell, rightfully so, was recognized by Time Magazine as one of their â€Å"Men of the Year† in 1969 along with fellow astronauts, Frank Borman and William Anders. Time was right in doing this because Lovell needs to be remembered for a number of reasons. For example, all the work he did aiding the creation of NASA’s space program , the pride he gave America during the Cold War, his success in multiple, skilled fields of work. But most importantly, the intact image of space exploration is almost entirely thanks to him [Gale Biography 5]. Yet even in addition to all of those things, Jim Lovell provided us with a perspective that very few have. We have all yearned to go to the moon. Lovell did that. The perspective he gave us was how important our very own planet was. â€Å"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† [American Experience: Race to The Moon 7], remarked Lovell on his second and final mission to the moon. Jim Lovell had a very normal, one could call it, childhood. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on March 25, 1928 to parents Blanche and James Lovell. Although, his parents moved him to Milwaukee, Wisconsin when he was still a young child. There he spent his time building toy rockets which subsequently became one of his favorite hobbies throughout high school. In high school he even figured out how to launch his rockets to noteable heights. In NASA’s biography of Lovell, they titled one of the sections Lovell: Stargazer in Space and stated that Lovell had been interested in space for as long as he could remember. Lovell attended a number of universities prior to his career including: University of Wisconsin, the US Naval Academy, where he received his Bachelors of Science in 1952, Test Pilot School, the University of Southern California, NATC, Aviation Safety School, Harvard Business School, Illinois Wesleyan University, Western Michigan University, Mary Hardin-Bayor University, and also the Milwaukee School of Business. When Lovell first finished with his schooling, he served two years in the Korean war [Ellis-Christensen 8]. After he returned from his tour, in September of 1962, Lovell was selected by NASA to be an astronaut [Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center 4]. This was mainly because of his extensive flying history. Before his space career, he was climbing up the ranks in the Navy as a test pilot. When he finally got chosen by NASA he finished his service in the Navy with over 7000 hours of logged flying time. The astronauts of Apollo 8, Lovell, Borman, and Anders, were the first three humans to ever see the other side of the moon, and from a mere 69 miles away [PBS 7]. Lovell was also known for his sense of humor. On the first live TV broadcast ever seen from space, Lovell could have been seen stirring his chocolate pudding and wishing his 73 year old mother a happy birthday. His first words to describe the moon when he first saw it were, â€Å"It looks like a big grey beach! † Also, he named one of the triangular mountains on the moon after his wife and the name stuck. To this day, people still refer to that mountain as Mt. Marilyn [PBS 7]. One of the biggest contributions Lovell left us with was all the work he did to help the space shuttle program get up and running. NASAs space shuttle program began with its first launch on April 12, 1981 and ended with its last landing on July 21, 2011. The space shuttle program’s goal was to construct and maintain the International Space Station. It launched 5 shuttles into space. The Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour [Jeanne Ryba 12]. In the beginning of the space shuttle program Lovell was appointed to a very important position: Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, which was the home of the space shuttle program for more than 20 years [Gale Biography 5]. During these 20 years the space center and Jim Lovell oversaw more than 100 launches of these 5 spacecrafts [Amiko Kauderer 14]. By the end of the program, the International Space Station was a built and successful. The final chapter in Lovell’s space missions concluded with Apollo 13. The goal of Apollo 13 was for NASA to send a second group of astronauts to the moon. Originally the crew for Apollo 14 was assigned to 13 but due to lack of preparation, the two crews were forced to switch positions. The crew that ended up going on the perilous Apollo 13 mission ended up being JIm Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise [Lovell 1]. While in transit to the moon, there was an unexpected explosion in one of the oxygen tanks on the ship. This explosion did such significant damage to the ship that Apollo 13, in a split second, went from a mission to the moon, to a life or death crisis for these three astronauts. As Lovell stated, â€Å"The pilots were at the center of any problem, next in line were the individual console controllers in Houston, ultimately responsible for getting problems solved was the flight director† who happened to be himself on that fateful mission PBS 7]. In a panic, all of NASA and the crew out in space worked tirelessly to get the ship home safely. After hours of problem solving and calculating and speculating, Jim Lovell had found a solution that would save them. â€Å"It was a triumph of human motivation, teamwork and initiative over technology,† Lovell said to Janet I-Chin Tu for a Seattle Times article. After the astronauts returned home, they were regarded as national heroes. The story of Apollo 13 got turned into a hit movie in 1995 by director Ron Howard [Apollo 13 2]. In the end, there was something else saved by this mission besides the lives of three amazing astronauts; it was the image of space travel in itself. If Apollo 13 had gone the other way, and those men had gotten stranded out in space to drift along forever, the image of space travel would have been permanently damaged. It’s safe to say, that if that Apollo mission had failed, there wouldn’t be any other NASA missions and there would not be any space shuttle program, meaning no international space station. NASA and America has Jim Lovell to thank for all of that, and saving Apollo 13. Although some may say, â€Å"Why is space so important, why did we invest so much money in sending a couple of men to the moon? This is a valid point. After all, all we brought back from the most famous NASA mission, Apollo 8, was a couple of moon rocks. And where are those rocks now? They are sitting in a museum somewhere for people to simply look at. Not only that, but there were plenty of problems on our own orbiting rock that were yet to have been solved. Each and every one of which could have used the money dedicated to space trave l and the Space Race in a much different way. Why do we remember Jim Lovell as such an influential and important person? The answer however, is obviously what he did, but more importantly, when he did it. The 1960’s was arguably the most pivotal decade in American history. In that decade alone, more things were changing and growing and evolving than almost any other time not only for just the US, but for the rest of the world as well. For example, the very heated and competitive Space Race was going on between US’s NASA and the Soviet Union’s space program. Many would call the Space Race an extension of the Cold War between communism and capitalism [wiseGEEK 10]. This was a time of great tension between Russia and the US. It wasn’t until Apollo 11 sent Neil Armstrong to take the first steps on the moon in 1969 that the Space Race really started to quiet down [NASA 11]. That victory gave Americans an enormous amount of pride and nationalism right when they needed it the most. That right there may be one of the most important contributions Lovell and his crew gave to us. They gave america pride and a feeling of nationalism when our country needed it the most. Lovell even spoke with a couple of Russian cosmonauts who admitted to him that â€Å"Apollo 8 was a major blow to their psyche† [American Experience: Race to The Moon 7]. Jim, along with his other crewmates, were idols after that mission. The whole thing was broadcast on national television for people all over the country to watch Neil take those first steps on to uncharted territory and utter some of the most famous words ever said, â€Å"That’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind. † Jim, along with his other crewmates, were idols after that mission. â€Å"That Apollo 8 flight, I think, was the most important flight of this program. It was the first time men had left the confines of Earth; the first time that they were captured by another body nd this was the first real exploration into space. † Jim Lovell Aside from being a major part in one of the most memorable and important moments in human history, Lovell should also be remembered for how diverse his success was. One of his biggest accomplishments was becoming Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX [Gale Biography 5]. In addition, not only did he make it just about as far as one can in the space industry, he also became CEO and owned a number of major corporations and businesses after his career with NASA was over. Following that, he served for many years as a special consultant to the president’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports [Spaceflight Now Inc. 9]. He became CEO of Bay-Houston Towing Co. , CEO of Fisk Telephone Systems and also executive vice president of Centel Co. He also opened a restaurant in Lake Forest in 1999 called â€Å"Lovell’s of Lake Forest†. So, out of the millions and millions of people who have walked this Earth, James â€Å"Jim† Lovell Jr. got to be one of 12 who had the opportunity to be sent up to the moon in nothing but a big box of metal with some rockets attached to it. Not only did he go once, but he went twice. On the second time, the mission almost failed and we have him to thank for the fact that it didn’t. Finishing his NASA career with the record for amount of time in space, 715 hours and 5 minutes, Lovell also received a number of awards [LBJ Space Center 4]. These awards included the Distinguished Flying Cross Award, the Legion d’honneur, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and also the Congressional Space Medal of Honor [Tricia Ellis-Christensen 8]. In addition to that, he was also the only man to have visited the moon twice. After his first mission in space, Gemini 7, he told the story of his reaction to witnessing the first â€Å"Earthrise. † â€Å"We came around the moon for the very first time and Frank [Borman] and I were looking ahead as the horizon passed us and all of a sudden we saw the Earth come out of a lunar-horizon; and that was a really significant sight for me because i could put my thumb up to the window of the spacecraft and completely cover the Earth. I realized that everything I had ever known, my home, my loved ones, everything that was there that i had known was behind my thumb. I realized at that time just how insignificant we are in the universe. † [PBS 7] Not only was Lovell an extremely distinguished astronaut, but he was the head of many corporations and businesses and even a restaurant after his space career ended. Lovell provided us with the vital medicine our country needed during the Cold War: hope, unity, and pride. He also introduced a perspective that no one else could have: what it feels like to be Earthsick, to really appreciate the â€Å"grand oasis† we have the privilege to inhabit. Time magazine is absolutely justified in their article claiming Lovell and his crewmates as the most important men of 1969. Works Cited Apollo 13. Dir. Ron Howard. Perf. Tom Hanks. Imagine Studios, 1995. DVD. Anissimov, Michael. â€Å"What Was the Space Race? † WiseGEEK. N. p. , 2003. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. Ellis-Christensen, Tricia, and O. Wallace. â€Å"Who is Jim Lovell? † WiseGEEK. Conjecture, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. I-Chin Tu, Janet. â€Å"Search†. Advanced. Seattle Times, 8 Nov. 1996. Web. 22 Apr. 2013 Interview with Joe Schaul. Interview by Joe Schaul. n. d. : n. pag. Print. â€Å"James Lovell. † Gale Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Biography in Context. Web 12 Mar. 2013. Kauderer, Amiko. â€Å"NASA- National Aeronautics and Space Administration. † NASA. N. p. , 17 May. 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. 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