Astronaut Jim Lovell, who guided the Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth in 1970, has died aged 97.
Nasa said he had “turned a potential tragedy into a success” after an attempt to land on the Moon was aborted because of an explosion onboard the spacecraft while it was hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth.
Tens of millions watched on television as Lovell and two other astronauts splashed back down into the Pacific Ocean, a moment which has become one of the most iconic in the history of space travel.
Lovell, who was also part of the Apollo 8 mission, was the first man to go to the Moon twice – but never actually landed.
Acting Nasa head Sean Duffy said Lovell had helped the US space programme to “forge a historic path”.
In a statement, Lovell’s family said: “We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind.”
Tom Hanks, who played Lovell in the 1995 movie Apollo 13, called the astronaut one of those people “who dare, who dream, and who lead others to the places we would not go on our own”.
Hanks said in a statement on Instagram that Lovell’s many voyages “were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the course of being alive”. (BBC News)
