Famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, who commanded the harrowing Apollo 13 mission that was forced to abandon a lunar landing attempt in 1970, has died. He was 97.

He led the three-man crew that survived a near catastrophic explosion in space in 1970, and was later immortalized by Tom Hanks in the movie “Apollo 13.”

Astronaut Jim Lovell, whose history-making leadership of a near-disastrous 1970 moon mission was chronicled in the hit film Apollo 13, died Thursday.