European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 03, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Former Nasa space Cowboy takes in a film by Lena Williams new York times. T the chilling moment in the film Apollo 13 when Tom Hanks tries to Man Euver the crippled spacecraft on an exact course toward Earth the audience at the Ziegfeld theater in new York held its collective breath. But Jim Lovell the real life commander of Apollo 1.3, watched the drama impassively while he munched buttered Popcorn in the last Row. He grinned when Hanks As Lovell brought the spacecraft to a halt in 38 seconds with the Crescent shape of Earth entered on the control panel. The audience sighed in Relief. On screen it seemed too perfect to be True. So a dubious viewer risked being shushed one Day last week by other moviegoers As the Man with the right stuff arid the right answers was asked if that really was True. / Lovell tossed a handful of Popcorn into his Mouth and whispered to his theater companion actually we Only had 1.4 seconds to do that  if the Crew had failed to Correct  s trajectory he said we would have bounced off the Earth s atmosphere to Spac again for  during a i 30 . Showing at the Senfeld the retired naval Captain who with hts Crew mates sur Vived in space for 3 Days and 15 hours on limited Power heat and oxygen spoke matter of factly about those critical moments 25 years ago when he Fred w. Haise or. And John l. Jack Swigert or. Came close to being thrust into permanent elliptical orbit-.--. When Apollo 13 was launched on april 11,1970, Lovell and Haise had visions of walking on the Moon with Swigert remaining in orbit in the conv Briand module. For astronauts in 1970, such a Mission was almost routine. But two Days into it on april 13, an oxygen tank in the rear service module exploded causing a rapid loss of electrical Power. The lunar Landing was aborted and the three men took Refuge in the cramped lunar module Cabin As they looped around the Moon and headed precariously Back to Ward Earth. Since the Universal pictures release opened june Jim Tovell who commanded Apollo 13 in 1970, praised the accuracy of the film about the Mission. Nasa 30 in the states interest in the Mission and in the men who turned failure into Success has grown anew. The film is no. 1 at the Box office and Apollo 13 pocket books the paperback version of Lovell s memoirs on which the film is based reached no. 1 on the new York times Best seller list. Nevertheless those who Are old enough Tore member and a generation for whom the Story is news still can t quite believe that what they re seeing or Reading is indeed True. Lovell 67 and recently in new York with his wife Marilyn to promote the movie and Book still looks like a Nasa space Cowboy. He has been ribbed Sev eral times during the last few weeks by people who Apollo 13 astronauts Fred Haise Jim Lovell and John Swigert emerge from the recovery helicopter on april 4,1970, after their successful return to Earth. Up want to know did that really happen i read where someone said the part where Mari Lyn dropped her wedding ring Down the Drain in the Shower on the morning of the launch was written into the movie for effect he said. That did Hap " pc ,. As did the Nightmare. Three Days before the launch mrs Lovell i Cam Ped her husband was sucked through an  of a spacecraft into outer space. Three months before the flight i took Marilyn to the premiere of marooned he recalled later. The fictional movie tells the Story of three Apollo Astro nauts unable to return to Earth because of Retro rocket failure. One astronaut named Jim gets sucked into space he said. That was probably the source of Marilyn s Nightmare he said. She did t Tell me about it until after i  was he Ever afraid Lovell seemed taken Aback by the question. We were All test pilots he said in a slow measured voice. And the Only thing we could do was to try to get Home. The idea of despair never occurred to us because we were always optimistic we would get  he paused for a moment searching for the right words to explain to a Mere earthbound mortal that danger and fear arc not part of an astronaut s lexicon. A group of us were at a hotel in Washington when we found out about the fire aboard Apollo 1," he said referring to the Jan. 27,1967, fire aboard Apollo 1 that Kil cd the astronauts Virgil Gus gris som Edward h. White and Roger b. Chaffee. The talk turned to death he said and we quietly agreed that if you be got to buy the farm bet. Tar to do it while Riding a Cor screwing rocket up through the atmosphere or steering a tumbling spacecraft Down to Earth or getting stuck in orbit with a dead Retro rocket or being marooned on the face of the  one expects a Man with such bravado to be larger than life. Actually at 5-foot-ll, 170 pounds and continued on pm pc 8 september 3, 1995 sunday Page