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To say he loved rockets would be an understatement.
'One Saturday, a 16-year-old hauled a heavy, three-foot tube into the middle of a large field in Wisconsin.
He had persuaded his science teacher to help him make a makeshift rocket. Somehow, he had managed to get his hands on the ingredients for gunpowder - potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal.
He pulled on a welder's helmet for protection. He packed it with powder, struck a match and ran like hell.
The rocket rose 80 feet into the air and exploded. Had the chemicals been packed slightly differently, he would have been blown to pieces.'
It was actually Jack Swigert who uttered the words first.
Jim Lovell has an interesting career and flew on Apollo 8, the first Moon mission I can remember. It orbited the Moon a few times and the crew were the first to ride the Saturn V rocket.
Having read about the missions I don’t think anyone appreciated just how dangerous they were and still are. Fascinating stuff.
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