US astronaut Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission to the Moon which nearly ended in disaster in 1970 after a mid-flight explosion, has died at the age of 97, NASA announced Friday.

Lovell, who was played by actor Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," never made it to the lunar surface, but was considered one of the greats of the US lunar space program.

"NASA sends its condolences to the family of Capt. Jim Lovell, whose life and work inspired millions of people across the decades," the US space agency said in a statement, adding that the astronaut died on Thursday in a Chicago suburb.

Launched on April 11, 1970 -- nine months after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon -- Apollo 13 was intended to be humanity's third lunar landing.

However, an oxyg

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