— The first person to fly twice to the moon is being honored with the naming of a cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station.

The late James Lovell, who was one of the first three people to see Earth's natural satellite up-close before commanding the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon landing mission, is being remembered by a NASA contractor.

"NG-25 will carry more than cargo; it will carry a legacy," a Northrop Grumman spokesman announced in a video statement. "Each Cygnus spacecraft is named in honor of a pioneer whose vision, courage and contributions have advanced human spaceflight. It's our way of paying tribute to the people who made today's missions possible, and inspiring the next generation to follow in their footsteps."

The Cygnus is targeted to launch this fall on the NG-25 mission, the company's 25th NASA-contracted resupply flight since January 2014.

"For NG-25, Northrop Grumman is proud to announce that the Cygnus spacecraft will be named the 'S.S. James A. Lovell," said the spokesman.

A naval aviator who joined NASA in 1962 with its second group of astronauts, Lovell first flew on two Gemini missions: Gemini 7, which achieved the first rendezvous with another crewed spacecraft (Gemini 6A), and Gemini 12, the final mission of the program and the first to include a fully-successful spacewalk.

He was then a member of the Apollo 8 crew, the first mission to reach and orbit the moon. His last flight was as the leader of the Apollo 13 crew, who safely made it home after an inflight explosion crippled the mission's service module.

Lovell died in August 2025 at the age of 97, after seeing his story being told as a feature-length movie starring Tom Hanks.

"This Cygnus spacecraft will carry forward the spirit of exploration, problem-solving and dedication that defined Lovell's remarkable career," a spokesman for Northrop Grumman said.

This is the fourth honor for Lovell this year. In April, NASA's Artemis II crew — the first astronauts to fly by the moon in more than 50 years — carried with them an Apollo 8 silkscreened patch that was inscribed by Lovell as having flown on the 1968 mission. That same month, the directors of "Apollo 13," Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, paid tribute to Lovell at the Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, called the "Oscars of Science."

Then, earlier this month, Johnson Space Center dedicated a tree in its memorial grove to the late astronaut.

The S.S. James A. Lovell is the third Cygnus XL, a design capable of carrying 33 percent more cargo than previous variants of the spacecraft, and the sixth Cygnus to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket while Northrop Grumman's next generation of Antares rockets is under development.

The cargo it delivers will be in support of the space station's Expedition 75 crew.

Previous Cygnus namesakes have included company executive J.R. Thompson, Air Force Manned Orbiting Lab candidate Robert Lawrence, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and NASA astronauts David Low, Gordon Fullerton, Janice Voss, Deke Slayton, Alan Poindexter, John Glenn, Roger Chaffee, Piers Sellers, Sally Ride, Patricia Robertson, Dick Scobee, Willie McCool and Steven Nagel.

Lovell is the fourth of the Apollo lunar voyagers to be honored after Gene Cernan, John Young and Alan Bean.