With hundreds in attendance, SIUE hosted their annual Shaw lecture series this Friday with speaker world renowned speaker Capt. Jim Lovell.

Capt. Lovell, known for his multiple flights to space, was the main speaker at the event.  Along with going to space numerous times, Lovell has been one the moon twice.  He was a part of the Gemini missions and Apollo 8 and 13 missions.

Though Lovell has had enough experience in space to last a lifetime, his main focus of the eveining was on the Apollo 13 flight.

Apollo 13 was scheduled to be a flight to the moon to gather samples of rocks from the highlands of the moon, but there was an accident.  During flight, there was an explosion aboard the spacecraft.  It took dozens of men to work together to bring back Lovell and his team safely home.

Over 60 EHS students were in attendance at the event.

“I really enjoyed his story,” senior Amy Svoboda said.  “..I was in awe at his ability to stay calm and focused when everything was literally falling into pieces around him.”

Mr. Cliff Parker and Mr. Dave Boedeker’s physics and astronomy classes were encouraged to attend as well.  Svoboda is in Mr. Boedeker’s Honors Astronomy class.

“I knew this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear Jim Lovell, a man who has been to the moon twice, tell his story,” Svoboda said.

The physics department at SIUE contacted Mr. Parker about the event and allotted 60 tickets for EHS students in physics and astronomy classes to attend.

“It’s nice to see that students wanted to go see someone that went into space,” Mr. Boedeker said. “It was cool to be in the same room as someone who’s done that.”

The night started off with a few speakers honoring the Shaw family, including a short video and speeches.

Professor William C. Shaw was a dedicated physics professor at SIUE form 1959-1973.  After his death in 1977, his friends and family established the William C. Shaw Memorial Fund to put on events every year like the lecture series and to also help build the Shaw Sky Lab at SIUE.