Tom Hanks has paid tribute to Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, whom he portrayed in the 1995 Oscar-winning film. In an Instagram post, Hanks described Lovell as someone who dared to go where others would not, calling him “that kind of guy.”
Lovell died on Thursday at age 97 in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA confirmed. The cause of death has not been released. Hanks wrote that Lovell's voyages were not for riches or celebrity, but because challenges fuel the course of being alive.
Apollo 13 was intended to be NASA's third crewed moon landing in 1970. An oxygen tank explosion 200,000 miles from Earth forced Lovell and crewmates Jack Swigert and Fred Haise to abort the mission. Lovell famously reported, “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” later immortalised by Hanks as “Houston, we have a problem.”
The crew used engine burns to slingshot around the moon and return safely, splashing down in the South Pacific. The mission became known as the Apollo program's “successful failure.” Lovell made a cameo in the film as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the recovery ship.
