Getty Composite

Tom Hanks is saying farewell to late Apollo 13 astronaut James Lovell ... who Tom famously played on the big screen.

In 1995's "Apollo 13" Tom plays Lovell, who died Thursday at 97. Getty / Alamy

Tom is remembering Lovell in a heartfelt post on social media, saying ... "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." Getty

Hanks adds ... "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."

See Full Page