LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Ken Mattingly, an astronaut who is best remembered for his efforts on the ground that helped bring the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft safely back to Earth, has died, NASA announced. He was 87.
\u201cWe lost one of our country\u2019s heroes on Oct. 31,\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a Thursday statement.
Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II \u201cwas key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout history,\u201d Nelson said.
NASA didn\u2019t mention where or how Mattingly died. However, The New York Times reported that Mattingly died in Arlington, Virginia.
A former Navy pilot, Mattingly joined NASA in 1966. He helped with development of the spacesuit and backpack for the Apollo moon missions, NASA said.
However, his own first spaceflight only came in 1972 when he orbited the moon as pilot of the Apollo 16 command module, while two other crew members landed on the moon\u2019s surface.
On the trip back to Earth, Mattingly spacewalked to collect film cannisters with photographs he had snapped of the moon\u2019s surface.
In later years, Mattingly commanded two space shuttle missions and retired from the agency and the Navy as a rear admiral.
But his most dramatic mission was one that he never flew.
In 1970, Mattingly was supposed to have joined the crew of Apollo 13, piloting the command module. But he was removed from the mission a few days before launch after being exposed to German measles.
He didn\u2019t contract the illness but was replaced aboard the mission by John Swigert Jr.
Several days into the mission, an oxygen tank on the spacecraft\u2019s service module exploded, knocking out most of the power and oxygen to the command module. The lunar landing was scrapped and NASA began frantic efforts to save Swigert, James Lovell and Fred Haise.
Mattingly, who knew the spacecraft intimately, worked with engineers and others as they analyzed the situation and scrambled to find solutions and pass on instructions to the crew.
The trio of astronauts eventually crowded into the lander, which was designed for only two, and used it as a lifeboat for four days as Apollo 13 swung around the moon and then landed safely on Earth.
Mattingly \u201cstayed behind and provided key real-time decisions to successfully bring home the wounded spacecraft and the crew,\u201d NASA\u2019s Nelson said.
\u201cOne of the many lessons out of all this is starting on day one it was from the very first moment, assume you\u2019re going to succeed and don\u2019t do anything that gets in the way,\u201d Mattingly recalled in an oral history interview for NASA in 2001.
Apollo 13\u2019s story was told in the 1994 book \u201cLost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13,\u201d co-authored by Lovell, and in the 1995 movie \u201cApollo 13,\u201d where Gary Sinise played Mattingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n