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Blue Dot: Tribute to an American hero: NASA astronaut Jim Lovell

Gemini and Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell in 2017.
Adler Planetarium
Gemini and Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell in 2017.

Host Dave Schlom is joined by some very special guests to celebrate the life of one of NASA's greatest astronauts, James A. Lovell Jr.

Jim Lovell flew into space on Gemini 7 and Gemini 12 in the mid 1960s, was one of the first to see the Moon from lunar orbit and the Earth from deep space on Apollo 8 at Christmas in 1968, and of course, commanded the famous Apollo 13 mission of survival in 1970.

Dave is joined by Andrew Chaikin, author of the seminal book, A Man on the Moon, to look back at Lovell's spectacular career. Then we get a more intimate look at the man's life with his eldest daughter, Barbara Lovell Harrison. Finally, retired NASA Flight Director Gerry Griffin joins us to discuss what it was like to work closely with Lovell during the heady times of the space race of the 1960s and early 1970s.

It's a very special tribute to the man who was Dave's ultimate childhood hero as we mark the first time since that magical Christmas evening in 1968 when the crew members of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, Lovell, and William Anders are no longer with us.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.