James Lovell, the NASA astronaut who successfully piloted the ship back to Earth in one of the most memorable episodes in the history of manned spaceflight, has died at the age of 97. Mr Lovell and his crew, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, were immortalised in the 1995 movie Apollo 13, in which actor Tom Hanks — portraying Lovell — famously said, “Houston, we have a problem”.

In a statement, NASA said: “Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount. We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.” Mr Lovell, who died on Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA, was one of NASA's most travelled astronauts in the agency's first decade, flying four times, on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, with the two Apollo flights riveting the folks back on Earth. In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Mr Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the first to leave Earth's orbit and the first to fly to and circle the moon.

They could not land, but they put the US ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Letter writers told the crew that their stunning pale blue dot photo of Earth from the moon, a world first, and the crew's Christmas Eve reading from Genesis saved America from a tumultuous 1968.

But the big rescue mission was still to come. That was during the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in 1970. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon.

Apollo 13's service module, carrying Mr Lovell and two others, experienced a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its way to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending four cold and clammy days in the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat.

Speaking in 1994, he said: ''The thing that I want most people to remember is that in some sense it was very much of a success.

''Not that we accomplished anything, but a success in that we demonstrated the capability of (NASA) personnel.''

A retired Navy captain known for his calm demeanour, Lovell told a NASA historian that his brush with death affected him.

He said: “I don't worry about crises any longer. I'm still here. I'm still breathing.' So, I don't worry about crises.”

Until the Skylab flights of the mid-1970s, he held the world record for the longest time in space with 715 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds.

Aboard Apollo 8, Lovell described the oceans and land masses of Earth, saying: "What I keep imagining is if I am some lonely traveller from another planet, what I would think about the Earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not.:

That mission may be as important as the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, a flight made possible by Apollo 8, Launius said.

Gene Kranz, NASA's legendary flight director, once said: "I think in the history of space flight, I would say that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program."

But if historians consider Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 the most significant of the Apollo missions, it was during Mr Lovell's last mission that he came to embody for the public the image of the cool, decisive astronaut.

The Apollo 13 crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was on the way to the moon in April 1970, when an oxygen tank from the spaceship exploded 200,000 miles from Earth.

By coolly solving the problems under the most intense pressure imaginable, the astronauts and the crew on the ground became heroes. In the process of turning what seemed routine into a life-and-death struggle, the entire flight team had created one of NASA's finest moments.

Afer Mr Lovell retired from the Navy and from the space program in 1973, he and his family ran a now-closed restaurant in suburban Chicago, Lovell's of Lake Forest.

His wife, Marilynn, died in 2023. Survivors include four children.

In a statement, his family said: “We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind.”