
American astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the failed 1970 mission to the moon that nearly ended in disaster but became an inspirational saga of survival and the basis for the hit movie “Apollo 13,” has died at the age of 97, NASA said on Friday.
Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks played Lovell in director Ron Howard’s acclaimed 1995 film. It recounted NASA’s Apollo 13 mission, which was planned as humankind’s third