(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Fifty years ago, astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew splashed down successfully in the Pacific after a harrowing lunar mission-gone-wrong.
Lovell, 92, lives in the suburbs with his wife, and they’re sheltering in place.
Otherwise, Lovell on Friday would have been at the federal health center that bears his name for a ceremony honoring him on this 50th anniversary of the safe ending to Apollo 13.
“It was a momentous occasion,” Lovell said in a conference call set up by the center.
Veterans and others had the chance to ask him to reminisce about the troubled Apollo 13 flight, which was dramatized in a popular 1995 film starring Tom Hanks.
“Coming home through the atmosphere, there were a lot of Gs on the spacecraft. We were all hanging in there, but once we saw the parachutes open up, there was a great sigh of relief,” Lovell said.
Another questioner asked if he had ever wanted to return to space.
Lovell recalled a similar question from a reporter 50 years ago: “Jim, would you like to go back to the moon?”
Friday, he said: “I was about ready to answer that question when I saw a hand go up in the back of the audience. It was my wife - with a thumbs-down. So, I said, ‘I think this is my last flight.’”
The special event honoring Lovell has been postponed until the fall.