Date: April 13, 1970.

Location: 205,000 miles from earth.

Destination: The Moon.

It was the moment which gripped and horrified the world -- three American astronauts in a battle against death in space.

The Apollo 13 spacecraft had just been crippled by a mysterious explosion, forcing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to call off plans for the world's third moon landing.

And for the commander of the mission, Mr. James A. Lovell Jr., it signalled the end of a dream.

The 42-year-old's frustration and bitter disappointment, however, were soon replaced by the most natural instinct of all ... survival.

How Mr. Lovell, and the two other astronauts, Mr. Fred W. Haise Jr. and Mr.

John L. Swigert Jr., lived through the next 87 hours and used their moon lander as a lifeboat in space to return safely to earth has become part of aerospace legend.

It has also spawned a big-selling book, "Lost Moon'', by Mr. Lovell, and a potential blockbuster movie, "Apollo 13''.

The film features Forrest Gump star Tom Hanks -- who plays Mr. Lovell -- and is set for release at the end of the month.

Last week, Mr. Lovell, now 67, was in Bermuda as a guest speaker at a business meeting of the American General Insurance Company at the Southampton Princess Hotel.

He took time off to promote his book, which has been published in 12 different countries, talk about the movie, and relive the four days 25 years ago which turned his life upside down ... literally and figuratively.

First of all, those 87 hours.

Mr. Lovell remembers clearly the sound which told the trio that they would have to double back to earth.

"There was bang, a hiss bang,'' he told The Royal Gazette .

In Bermuda, technicians at Cooper's Island NASA station were keeping track of Apollo 13 when the mysterious explosion knocked out the electric current aboard the astronauts' command ship, Odyssey, and spilled part of their life-giving oxygen.

Deprived of oxygen, the three men faced the danger of being slowly poisoned by carbon dioxide.

"It was a very serious situation, and was almost a catastrophe. We had to figure out how to get home,'' recalled Mr. Lovell.

"It did not make any sense to panic. We were on the spot, and we tried to work out what went wrong.'' He added: "I could see gas escaping from the rear end of the spacecraft.'' As an anxious world watched, the astronauts used their little Aquarius moon lander as a form of lifeboat in space, taking full advantage of its oxygen and power.

After firing the lunar lander rocket, the astronauts gunned their crippled spaceship for home -- putting themselves on a direct path for a Pacific Ocean splashdown.

NASA engineers studied data from the spaceship to see how accurate the manoeuvre had been, and after hailing it a success, the astronauts agreed to drop power immediately to save fuel.

High tension had filled the flight control room at Houston just before the manoeuvre, and after everything was checked the pilots used the descent engine of the Aquarius lander to position themselves for the return to earth.

Normally, the Aquarius would have been jettisoned before they headed back, but on this mission it proved a life-saver.

Worn out and freezing cold, the pilots eventually made a near-perfect splashdown in the south Pacific, about 400 miles east of Samoa.

Their aborted mission -- begun on April 11 -- had lasted precisely 142 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds.

"We were very happy to get back. It was a great relief since we had cheated death again,'' said Mr. Lovell.

"The whole ordeal had lasted four days, and we got very little sleep. I would say we slept for about one hour.'' Among those to welcome him back to earth were his wife, Marilyn, and their four children, two girls and two boys.

"My wife had been kept fully briefed about what was happening. She was naturally very happy to see me.'' Mr. Lovell admitted the three astronauts had discussed their families during their ordeal -- but not as much as portrayed in the movie.

"We talked about our wives and families a little bit, but we tried to remain as optimistic as possible about seeing them again.'' It was to be Mr. Lovell's final venture into the final frontier.

To the superstitious, fate had singled out the mission for bad luck; after all, the figure 13 curiously featured throughout -- from the number of the Apollo craft to the date of the explosion, April 13.

Mr. Lovell, however, is not the superstitious type.

Looking back, he appears philosophical about what happened. To have survived such a brush with death was a great achievement, but to have missed out on following the footsteps of the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, and their Apollo 12 successors Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean was disappointing.

"Sometimes I think about it, and I feel frustrated, but I'm also very proud of the teamwork which helped to get us back to earth.'' That frustration must be compounded from the knowledge that Apollo 13's failure was linked to a faulty oxygen thermos flask.

Mr. Lovell said the drama of what happened had been superbly captured in the movie, for which he acted as technical adviser.

He also played a small cameo part.

"The film has a lot of suspense and excitement and has been kept as authentic as possible,'' said Mr. Lovell.

"It should keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and cinematically it is first class.'' He added: "It will be a bit exaggerated, of course, although you don't need to exaggerate very much. What happened in real life was dramatic enough.'' Mr. James. A. Lovell Jr.