Lovell served as commander for the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, which successfully returned to Earth after an explosion two days into the mission, damaged the craft’s electrical and life support systems, and led to an aborted lunar landing and a perilous return to Earth. The mission was immortalized in the 1995 movie Apollo 13.

James Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 who helped turn a failed moon mission into a triumph of on-the-fly can-do engineering, has died. He was 97. Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

Once America's most experienced astronaut, Apollo 13's Jim Lovell, who died at 97, was the first to visit the moon twice.