Jim Lovell

Jim Lovell had been one of the New Nine astronauts in 1962, which included John Young, Ed White, Pete Conrad, Frank Borman, and Neil Armstrong.  Lovell's first flight in space had been with Frank Borman on Gemini 7 in December 1965.  In 1966, he went back to space on Gemini 12 with Buzz Aldrin; this was Aldrin's first trip to space.  In 1968, he joined Frank Borman and William Anders on Apollo 8 for the first flight to the moon.  The famous picture of Earthrise was taken on this mission.

Though slated to command Apollo 14, his crew was bumped forward to Apollo 13 on account of Alan Shepard's perceived unreadiness for the mission; Shepard's last mission was 9 years earlier.  Lovell was one of only 5 astronauts who had been on 3 missions at the time; he had spent 3 weeks in space so far and would be the first to make a 4th trip.  A walk on the moon would be a perfect capstone to a stellar career.  Instead, it proved to be the successful failure that saw NASA overcome an array of challenges to bring the astronauts home safely.

Lovell was portrayed by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 (1995) and Tim Daly in HBO's From the Earth to the Moon (1998).  Both the movie and the series are highly recommended.

RIP