Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks in beloved movie, dies aged 97

The commander of Apollo 13, Jim Lovell, has died at the age of 97.

Jim, who uttered the phrase “Houston, we have a problem,” died on Thursday August 7 in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to his family.

“NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades,” read a statement from NASA.

“Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”

In a statement released Friday, Jim’s family highlighted his “amazing life” but spoke proudly of how, “most importantly, he was our Hero”.

“But, to all of us, he was Dad, Granddad, and the Leader of our family. Most importantly, he was our Hero,” they 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.”

© Bettmann Archive

Jim was played by Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie Apollo 13 which told the terrifying events of 1970 when three astronauts, including Jim, were 200,000 miles away from Earth when an oxygen tank exploded.

Happening 55 hours into their mission, Swigert radioed to ground control: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”

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“Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a Main B Bus Undervolt,” repeated Jim when asked to repeat.

NASA later confirmed that the explosion destroyed their command module, and left the astronauts facing shortage of water and power, as well as high levels of carbon dioxide.

© Heritage Images via Getty Images

Over the following days the astronauts worked with NASA engineers to complete their successful rescue, and six days later they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said in a statement after his passing: “As commander of the Apollo 13 mission, his calm strength under pressure helped return the crew safely to Earth and demonstrated the quick thinking and innovation that informed future NASA missions.”

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Born on March 25, 1928, in Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 and ten years later was selected to join NASA as part of the agency’s second round of astronauts.

Neil Armstrong, Charles “Pete” Conrad and John Young were among the same cohort and they were nicknamed “Next Nine”.

His first two spaceflights, Gemini VII and Gemini XII, were designed to demonstrate how humans could live in weightlessness, as well as to test technology for subsequent space station operations.

In 1968 he circled the moon on Apollo 8, making him one of the first three men to orbit the Moon,and as a member of Apollo 13 he became the first man to ever orbit the moon twice.

Jim was also the only human to have flown to the moon twice without landing, and the first person to fly into space four times.