Gemini and Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell died last week.

Despite travelling to the Moon twice he never landed there although he may have been the person most deserving to.

He flew on Gemini 7 with Frank Borman and Gemini 12 with Buzz Aldrin.

He was Command Module pilot of Apollo 8, travelling with Borman again and William Anders, the three becoming the first humans to orbit the Moon.

He commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13 flight but the damaged craft’s trajectory made its three personnel, Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise,  the humans to have travelled furthest from Earth (so far.)

Lovell it was who had to make the manually controlled burns of the Lunar Module’s thrusters and engine to enable the return to Earth.

James Arthur (Jim) Lovell: 25/3/1928 – 7/8/2025. So it goes.