Tom Hanks, who depicted Jim Lovell in “Apollo 13”, pays tribute to the last astronaut

Tom Hanks honors the hero of real life he once presented in a popular Oscar -winning film, CNN said CNN on Saturday.

Following the death of astronaut Jim Lovell on Friday, Hanks shared a painful position of social media on his Instagram, writing: “There are people who dare, dreaming and leading to places that would not go alone.”

“Jim Lovell, who had long been in space and for more than any other person on our planet, was this guy,” Hanks added.

The actor depicted Lovell in the film directed by the 1995 Ron Howard “Apollo 13”, which mentioned the story of Lovell’s failed mission, which almost cost him and his crew in 1970.

Apollo 13 would have highlighted NASA’s third successful landing, but during the bad mission-which brought Lovell as well as astronauts John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. On the boat-an oxygen tank located in the crew service unit exploded when it was about 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) away from Earth.

Lovell famously gave the news to control the mission, saying “Houston, we had a problem”. The exchange was later immortalized by Hanks in the movie “Apollo 13”, which costs Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan and the late Bill Paxton.

With the damage effectively bringing out the source of energy and other supplies of life support, the Apollo 13 crew had to abruptly abandon their journey to the lunar surface and use several engine burns to move around the remote side of the moon and find themselves.

The three -person crew made a high -stage return to the South Pacific Ocean about three days after the tank exploded, signaling the conclusion of what has become known as “successful failure” of Apollo missions.

“His many trips around the Earth and to be very close to the moon were not for wealth or celebrity, but because such challenges as these are the one that feeds on the course of life-and who better than Jim Lovell to make these trips,” Hanks wrote in his tribute on Friday.

Lovell died at the age of 97 on Thursday at Lake Forest, Illinois, according to a NASA press release, CNN previously reported. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

He made a short camero in the film as a captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the Nautical Ship recovering the Apollo 13 crew after the launch.

“Apollo 13” was suggested for nine Oscars, including the best image, and won two, for the best of movie editing and the best sound.