Tom Hanks has paid tribute to the late Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, whom he portrayed in the 1995 Oscar-winning film. In an Instagram post following Lovell's death on Thursday at age 97, Hanks described him as someone who dared to go where others wouldn't.
Lovell, who died in Lake Forest, Illinois, was best known for commanding the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970. An oxygen tank explosion forced the crew to abort their lunar landing, with Lovell famously reporting to mission control: 'Houston, we've had a problem.' The phrase was slightly altered in the film to 'Houston, we have a problem.'
Hanks wrote: 'There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own. Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy.'
Despite the crisis, the crew safely returned to Earth after a perilous journey around the moon, a mission later dubbed a 'successful failure.' Lovell made a cameo in the film as the captain of the recovery ship.
'His many voyages were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges fuel the course of being alive,' Hanks added. 'God speed you, on this next voyage, Jim Lovell.'
