The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

242 Lovell, James Arthur, Jr.
Lovell, James Arthur, Jr. (1928–)
An American astronaut who became the first human to
go into space four times, flying aboard Gemini 7, Gemini
12, Apollo 8, and Apollo 13, and the only person ever to
go to the Moon twice and not land. Lovell attended the
University of Wisconsin for two years, then entered the
Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating with a B.S. in
1952. Following graduation, Lovell received flight training
and served at a number of navy bases until entering
Naval Test Pilot School in 1958. One of nine NASA astronauts
chosen in September 1962, he was first assigned as
backup pilot for Gemini 4. In January 1966, after returning
from Gemini 7, he was named backup commander for
Gemini 10, a job generally thought to be a dead end.
Under the NASA rotation system, Lovell could have
expected to command Gemini 13, but the program ended
with flight number 12. His continued involvement with
Gemini would keep him from being named to the early
Apollo flights. But on February 28, 1966, Gemini 9 astronauts
Elliott See and Charles Bassett were killed in a plane
crash. In the subsequent shuffle of crew assignments,
Lovell and his pilot Buzz Aldrin moved from the Gemini
10 backup to Gemini 9, and were later assigned to Gemini
12. A year after Gemini 12, in the wake of the tragic
Apollo 1 fire, Lovell was assigned with Neil Armstrong
and Aldrin to the backup crew for what eventually
became Apollo 8. In July 1968, Lovell was promoted to
prime crew, replacing Michael Collins. This sequence of
events made it possible for Lovell to become one of the
first humans to fly around the Moon, but cost him his
participation in the first lunar landing. A similar mix of
good and bad luck placed Lovell on Apollo 13. As backup
commander of Apollo 11, he was in line to command
Apollo 14. But an attempt by flight crew chief “Deke”
Slayton to name Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard,
recently returned to flight status, to Apollo 13 was
blocked by NASA management, who thought Shepard
needed more training. In August 1969, Lovell was asked if
he and his crew could be ready in time to fly Apollo 13,
eight months later. Lovell said they could and got the job.
This turned out to be a dubious privilege, because a major
explosion aboard Apollo 13’s Service Module nearly cost
the crew their lives. Lovell, with colleagues Fred Haise
and Jack Swigert, took his second trip around the Moon
without setting foot on the surface, before heading
directly home in the stricken craft. Following Apollo 13
and a leave to attend Harvard, Lovell was named deputy
director for science and applications at the Johnson Space
Center in May 1971. On March 1, 1973, he retired from
the Navy as a captain and resigned from NASA to enter
private business. Lovell is president of Lovell Communications
and also serves as chairman of Mission HOME, a
campaign to rekindle enthusiasm and support for space.
low Earth orbit
See LEO.
low-gain antenna (LGA)
A small antenna that provides low amplification of either
transmitted or received radio signals. LGAs have wide
antenna patterns and therefore do not require precise
pointing.
LOX
See liquid oxygen.
LSAT
See Olympus.
Luch
An element of the second generation Soviet global command
and control system, deployed in the first half of
the 1980s. Luch (“beam”) satellites, analogous to the
American TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System),
provided communications service to Mir, the
Buran shuttle, Soyuz-TM spacecraft, military satellites,
and the TsUPK ground control center. They also supported
mobile fleet communications for the Soviet Navy.
The modernized Luch-2 allows two high data rate channels
to operate at once, enabling real-time TV transmissions
from Mir. Each satellite is equipped with three
transponders and has a nominal life of five years. By January
1999, five had been launched.
Lucian of Samosata (c. A.D. 120–180)
A Syrian-Greek writer, born in Samosata, Syria, who
penned the first known tales of interplanetary travel. In
the first, mischievously called The True History, his hero’s
ship is swept up by a great whirlwind and deposited on
the Moon. In the second, Icaro-menippus, his spacebound
adventurer follows in the footsteps, or rather the
wing-flaps, of his part-namesake, Icarus, son of Daedalus.
He tells his friends, “I took, you know, a very large eagle,
and a vulture also, one of the strongest I could get, and
cut off their wings.” Like many other writers for 1,500
years to come, Lucian made no distinction between aeronautics
and astronautics, assuming that normal airassisted
flight and breathing are possible on voyages
between worlds. To be fair, however, his books were
mainly satirical and not serious attempts to describe practical
spaceflight. 197
Lucid, Shannon Matilda Wells (1943–)
An American astronaut and the first woman to go into
space more than twice. Lucid received a B.S. in chemistry
(1963), and an M.S. (1970) and a Ph.D. (1973) in biochemistry,
from the University of Oklahoma. Selected by