James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain
in the U.S. Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which
suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to
Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control. Lovell was also the command
module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. Lovell is a
recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, the first of
only three people to fly to the Moon twice, and the only one to do so without
making a landing. Lovell was also the first American to fly in space four times. 

The Apollo 13 crew back home

Wernher von Braun  was a German born rocket scientist, engineer, space architect,
and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany  
and the United States during and after World War ll. A former member of the Nazi  
Party and a commissioned SS officer, von Braun would later be regarded as the 
preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century in his role with the U.S. civilian
space agency NASA. In 1955, ten years after entering this country, Von Braun
became a naturalized citizen. He lead the development of the Saturn V booster
rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in 1969. Von Braun received the
National Medal of Science in 1975. He died on June 16, 1977 of pancreatic cancer 
at the age of 65. 

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who discovered the theory
of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. His great intelligence and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius. He died in 1955 at the age of 76.