Lousma was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He served as a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 9, 10, and 13 missions. He was the CAPCOM recipient of the ""Houston, we've had a problem"" message from Apollo 13. He may have also been selected as lunar module pilot for Apollo 20, which was canceled. He was the pilot for Skylab 3 from July 28 to September 25, 1973, and was commander on STS-3, from March 22 until March 30, 1982, logging a total of over 1,619 hours in space.