Signed by Jim Lovell

LOVELL, Jim & KLUGER, Jeffrey.

Lost Moon - The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13.

New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., 1994.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine / Fine. Item #003981
ISBN: 0395670292

8vo (226 x 150 mm). [6], 378 pp. Publisher's half black cloth and blue paper boards, in pictorial dust-jacket (a trifle dust soiling to extremities, dust jacket a trifle rubbed). Signed by the first author on title page in black pen. Fine condition, in fine dust-jacket. ISBN 0395670292. ----

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). This book, the voyage of Apollo 13, inspired the multiple Academy Award-winning film Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks. James Arthur "Jim" Lovell, Jr. (born 1928) graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1952. He served in the US Navy as a pilot before attending test pilot school in Patuxent River, Maryland. From 1958 to 1962, he served in the U.S. Navy as a test pilot. During this time, he also took part in NASA's tests for future astronauts. He was shortlisted, but did not make it to the Mercury Seven selected for the Mercury program. When NASA was looking for a second group of astronauts, Lovell applied again and was accepted this time. On September 17, 1962, he was presented to the public with the second astronaut group. His specialty during training was the recovery of the landing capsule after splashdown. He received his first assignment to a space flight in June 1965: he was assigned as a replacement pilot for Gemini 4. If Edward White had failed, Lovell would have been the first American to leave his spaceship in Earth orbit for a space exit. On July 1, 1965, he was nominated as pilot for Gemini 7. On December 4, 1965, he and Frank Borman took off on this long-duration flight. With 14 days in space, the two set a new record, which was only broken in June 1970 with 17 days by the crew of the Soviet spaceship Soyuz 9. When the crew assignments for the Gemini flights were rescheduled after the fatal plane crash of astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett in March 1966, Lovell was given the post of replacement commander of Gemini 9. During Gemini 8 in March and Gemini 9 in June 1966, Lovell worked as a liaison officer (Capcom) at the flight control center in Houston. Shortly after the landing of Gemini 9, on June 17, 1966, Lovell received the nomination for his second space flight and his first command. Together with Buzz Aldrin, he was to carry out the last Gemini flight. Gemini 12 was carried out in November 1966. As part of the Apollo program, he was first assigned to the backup crew of the third manned Apollo flight, Mission E, in November 1967. During the preparations for the Apollo flights, Lovell carried out a simulated splashdown together with Stuart Roosa and Charles Duke from April 5 to April 7, 1968, during which they drifted in an Apollo landing capsule in the Gulf of Mexico for two days. Due to health problems, Michael Collins from the main crew of Mission E had to undergo an operation, so Lovell joined the main crew in the summer of 1968. However, because the lunar module was not yet available, missions and crews were rescheduled. Mission E was moved ahead of Mission D as Mission C? (C prime), numbered Apollo 8 and given a new goal: a flight to the moon without the lunar module. However, the public was only informed of these plans after the successful end of Apollo 7. The flight of Apollo 8 took place from December 21 to December 27, 1968. It was the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket and the first flight to the moon. Shortly afterwards, Lovell was nominated as the replacement commander of Apollo 11. If Neil Armstrong had been unable to fly, Lovell would have had the chance to be the first man to set foot on the moon. Lovell was initially intended as commander of Apollo 14, while Alan Shepard, who had been absent for a long time for health reasons, was to lead Apollo 13. However, NASA management wanted to give Shepard more time, so Shepard took over Apollo 14, and Lovell was nominated as commander of Apollo 13 on August 6, 1969. He was therefore scheduled to be the fifth man to walk on the moon. With the flight o 1st Printing.

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