Jim Lovell, commander of NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission, dies at 97

FILE PHOTO: Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell (L to R), former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, Sen. John Glenn and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden talk at a private memorial service celebrating the life of Neil Armstrong at the Camargo Club in Cincinnati, Ohio in this August 31, 2012 NASA handout photo/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -American astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the failed 1970 mission to the moon that nearly ended in disaster but became an inspirational saga of survival and the basis for the hit movie "Apollo 13," has died at the age of 97, NASA said on Friday.

Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks played Lovell in director Ron Howard's acclaimed 1995 film. It recounted NASA's Apollo 13 mission, which was planned as humankind's third lunar landing but went horribly wrong when an onboard explosion on the way to the moon put the lives of the three astronauts in grave danger.