Hanks honours Apollo 13 astronaut Lovell he played

Tom Hanks has paid tribute to James “Jim” Lovell, the Nasa astronaut he famously portrayed in the 1995 film Apollo 13, following his death at the age of 97.

- GREG EVANS

Lovell, best known for delivering the infamous "Houston, we've had a problem" line during the ill-fated 1970 Apollo 13 mission, passed away on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois.

On Friday, Hanks shared a message on Instagram honouring Lovell's legacy. The Oscar-winning actor wrote: "There are people who dare, who dream and who lead others to the 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. His many voyages around Earth and on to so-very-close to the moon were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the course of being alive - and who better than Jim Lovell to make those voyages."