India, Aug. 9 -- NASA astronaut James 'Jim' Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, has passed away at the age of 97 on Friday, NASA announced. As the mission commander of Apollo 13, he famously steered the spaceship to a successful mission after its oxygen tank exploded midway. His calm words upon finding out about the tank explosion, "Okay, Houston ... we've had a problem here-" as he notified the NASA base in Houston, has become a part of popular culture.

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Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times....