In Jeff Lovell’s bedroom, Jim Lovell is talking to his son about the Lunar Module.

“– only holds two people.  It’s just for landing on the Moon. And I take the controls, and I steer it around, and I fly it down, adjusting it here, the attitude there, ” says Jim, steering a model LM, “pitch, roll – – for a nice, soft landing on the Moon.” He sets the LM model down on a table. “Better than Neil Armstrong,” says Jim Lovell, “way better than Pete Conrad.”

“Dad…” says Jeff, hesitantly, “Did you know the astronauts in the fire?”

“Yeah, yeah I did know the astronauts in the fire,” replies Jim. “All of them.”

“Could that happen again?” asks Jeff.

“Well, I’ll tell you something about that fire,” says Jim, “Um, a lot of things went wrong. The door – – it’s called the hatch? — They couldn’t get it open when they needed to get out, that was one thing.”

IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks