Image Credit: NASA

The American astronaut Jim Lovell died on 7 August aged 97. He went into space for NASA on four missions. In 1965 in Gemini 7 Jim spent 2 weeks in a cramped seat and in Gemini 12 in 1966 did 3 spacewalks outside the capsule. However, he will be remembered more as crew member of Apollo 8 being the first mission that sent 3 men to orbit the Moon in December 1968 resulting in the iconic “Earthrise” picture that changed the way we see out fragile blue planet. But Jim Lovell will surely be mostly associated with the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in April 1970 that due to an oxygen tank explosion almost cost the crew their lives. With the ingenuity of NASA colleagues on Earth and his cool leadership, they returned safely which the 1996 film with Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell brilliantly recreates. The Apollo 13 onboard computer had much less computing power than our current smartphones but it got them back home. Now the tools of the Internet with new AI technology can magically generate amazing stuff. I asked ChatGPT to produce an 8 verse poem about Apollo13. It came up with this in 2 seconds!

Apollo 13 – A Voyage of Peril and Resolve

They soared beyond the blue and bold,
Three men in steel with hearts of gold,
Their course: the Moon, their aim: to land,
With Earth a fading speck of sand.

But fate would twist their path so wide,
A burst, a hiss—the dream denied.
“Oxygen tank,” the systems cried,
While mission hopes began to slide.

“Houston, we’ve had a problem here,”
The words rang sharp, both calm and clear.
A world held breath in silent dread,
While minds on Earth raced miles ahead.

They turned the craft into a tomb,
A lifeboat in the silent gloom.
With power scarce and time so tight,
They fought the dark to chase the light.

The Moon passed by, a ghostly face,
No footprints left, no sweet embrace.
Yet still they flew with nerves of steel,
Their will to live, their strongest keel.

Engineers with slide-rule grace,
Rebuilt the ship from outer space.
With duct tape, bags, and sheer resolve,
They cracked the code no man could solve.

Through icy breath and drifting sleep,
They carved a path both sharp and steep.
The heat shield burned, the silence broke—
A parachute, a hopeful smoke.

They splashed into the ocean’s arms,
Still whole, still bound by earthly charms.
Not glory won, but courage shown—
Apollo’s tale forever known

Glynn Bennallick