NASA said American astronaut James “Jim” Lovell Jr., commander of the near-catastrophic Apollo 13 mission and a veteran of four spaceflights, died on 7 August in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was 97. A former U.S. Navy test pilot selected as an astronaut in 1962, Lovell spent roughly 715 hours in space on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. On Apollo 8 in 1968 he helped pilot the first crewed flight to orbit the Moon, an achievement that paved the way for the Apollo 11 landing the following year. Lovell’s leadership during Apollo 13 in April 1970 became emblematic of crisis management in space after an oxygen-tank explosion forced the crew to abandon a planned lunar landing and improvise a safe return. The episode earned the astronauts the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was dramatized in the 1995 film “Apollo 13,” starring Tom Hanks, who joined other public figures in paying tribute. Lovell retired from NASA in 1973 but remained an influential advocate for human spaceflight throughout his life.