Spaceman who dared to dream

"THERE are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own," actor Tom Hanks said of Jim Lovell in a tribute to the astronaut.

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"Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person on our planet, was that kind of guy."

Hanks, of course, portrayed Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13.

Lovell co-wrote the book Lost Moon (1994), on which the movie was based, and had a fleeting onscreen role at the end. Earlier he made an appearance in The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), starring David Bowie.

Apollo 13 depicted the failed lunar mission that nearly cost Lovell and his crew their lives in 1970.

During the mission, manned by him and fellow astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, an oxygen tank exploded roughly 200,000 miles from Earth.