Ken Mattingly, Astronaut Scrubbed From Apollo 13, Is Dead At 87 (nytimes.com) 28
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Ken Mattingly, who orbited the moon and commanded a pair of NASA shuttle missions, but who was remembered as well for the flight he didn't make -- the near-disastrous mission of Apollo 13 -- died on Tuesday in Arlington, Va. He was 87. His death was confirmed by Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokeswoman. She did not specify the cause or say whether he died at home in Arlington or in a hospital there. Mr. Mattingly, a former Navy jet pilot with a degree in aeronautical engineering, joined NASA in 1966. But his first spaceflight didn't come until April 1972, when the space agency launched Apollo 16, the next-to-last manned mission to the moon. Piloting the spacecraft's command module in orbit while holding the rank of lieutenant commander, he took extensive photos of the moon's terrain and conducted experiments while Cmdr.John W. Young of the Navy and Lt. Col. Charles M. Duke Jr. of the Air Force, having descended in the lunar lander, collected rock and soil samples from highlands near the crater known as Descartes.
While the three astronauts were en route back to Earth, Commander Mattingly stepped outside the spacecraft -- which he had named Casper for the resemblance, as least in a child's eye, between an astronaut in a bulky spacesuit and the cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. Maneuvering along handrails while connected to the spacecraft by a tether, he retrieved two attached canisters of film with photos of the moon that he had taken from inside the capsule for analysis back on Earth. When the Apollo program ended, Commander Mattingly headed the astronaut support office for the shuttle program, designed to ferry astronauts to and from an eventual Earth-orbiting International Space Station. In the summer of 1982, he commanded the fourth and final Earth-orbiting test flight of the shuttle Columbia, which completed 112 orbits. He was also the commander of the first space shuttle flight conducted for the Department of Defense, a classified January 1985 mission aboard Discovery.
All those achievements came after he had been scrubbed at virtually the last moment from the flight of Apollo 13 in April 1970. He was to have orbited the moon in the command module while Cmdr.James A. LovellJr. of the Navy and Fred W. Haise Jr. explored the lunar surface. But NASA removed Commander Mattingly from the crew in the final days before launching, when blood tests determined that he had recently been exposed to German measles from training with Colonel Duke, the backup lunar module pilot, who in turn had contracted it from his proximity to an infected child at a neighborhood party. Commander Mattingly was the only one of the Apollo 13 crewmen who were found to lack antibodies against the illness. His backup, John L. Swigert Jr., became the command module pilot, leaving Commander Mattingly to watch the progress ofthe flight from mission control. [...] After his Apollo and space shuttle flights, Mr. Mattingly continued to work for NASA in the 1980s. He retired from the space agency and the Navy as a rear admiral and went on to work for aerospace companies.
While the three astronauts were en route back to Earth, Commander Mattingly stepped outside the spacecraft -- which he had named Casper for the resemblance, as least in a child's eye, between an astronaut in a bulky spacesuit and the cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. Maneuvering along handrails while connected to the spacecraft by a tether, he retrieved two attached canisters of film with photos of the moon that he had taken from inside the capsule for analysis back on Earth. When the Apollo program ended, Commander Mattingly headed the astronaut support office for the shuttle program, designed to ferry astronauts to and from an eventual Earth-orbiting International Space Station. In the summer of 1982, he commanded the fourth and final Earth-orbiting test flight of the shuttle Columbia, which completed 112 orbits. He was also the commander of the first space shuttle flight conducted for the Department of Defense, a classified January 1985 mission aboard Discovery.
All those achievements came after he had been scrubbed at virtually the last moment from the flight of Apollo 13 in April 1970. He was to have orbited the moon in the command module while Cmdr.James A. LovellJr. of the Navy and Fred W. Haise Jr. explored the lunar surface. But NASA removed Commander Mattingly from the crew in the final days before launching, when blood tests determined that he had recently been exposed to German measles from training with Colonel Duke, the backup lunar module pilot, who in turn had contracted it from his proximity to an infected child at a neighborhood party. Commander Mattingly was the only one of the Apollo 13 crewmen who were found to lack antibodies against the illness. His backup, John L. Swigert Jr., became the command module pilot, leaving Commander Mattingly to watch the progress ofthe flight from mission control. [...] After his Apollo and space shuttle flights, Mr. Mattingly continued to work for NASA in the 1980s. He retired from the space agency and the Navy as a rear admiral and went on to work for aerospace companies.
Apollo astronauts are a precious commodity. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I can't believe in this day and age these nutters even exist.
Re: (Score:3)
By nutters I mean Alex Jones types, not the astronaut heroes.
Re: (Score:3)
I can't believe in this day and age these nutters even exist.
When you have people believing, not just saying, but believing vaccines will change your DNA or getting the injection will inject a tracking device into you or that the vaccines contain nanomachines [apnews.com] which can be turned on via 5G, are you surprised?
Re:Apollo astronauts are a precious commodity. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's really easy to cast your ideological opposition under the bus as idiot simpletons when you mischaracterize their arguments in the most nutter way possible.
It has nothing to do with ideology or mischaracterization. Everything I said is 100% factual.
Nutters belive getting a covid vaccine [poynter.org] will alter your DNA [forbes.com].
Nutters belive the covid vaccines contained tracking devices [usatoday.com].
Personally, I'm untrusting of government run health programs in general, particularly when we're getting such inconsistent and contradictory information from the so-called authorities... often times information which contradicts basic observations of solitary fact.
Congratulations on being a nutter. How else would you like health programs to be run? By private companies? I'd like you to explain how a government run health program is so bad when that same program has wiped out smallpox from the planet, has almost eradicated polio from the planet except in a few isolated areas and where nutters such as yourself don't get the free vaccine, and those same government run programs has eliminated rinderpest from the planet. Let's not get into how those government run programs had almost eliminated measles from the U.S. until some religious nutter decided their religion was more important than not infecting and killing people.
But hey, you got trolling in for the day about "contradictory" information, completely mischaracterizing that is how science works. As more information is gathered, ideas can change. So congrats. Ya done good.
Re: (Score:2)
Such a believer in the truth, posting as a coward.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe because bots or NPCs mod anything even remotely oppositional to Official State Dogma as "Troll" when posted by a real account. Could be... nah?
Re:Apollo astronauts are a precious commodity. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I think you're forgetting the most common cause: Greed.
1. Attract confused people with falsehoods masquerading as truth.
2. Profit!
Since it's not even the traditional three-stop process, some see it as a shortcut to fame and fortune, irregardless of the harm they might cause.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I can't believe in this day and age these nutters even exist.
They don't really.
It's a little known fact that Alex Jones personally created most modern conspiracy theories, and conspiracy theories before him they were created by his father and other ancestors going back several generations. Alex Jones is only unusual in that he figured out how to monetize the family tradition in the form of his radio show.
Even true believers in conspiracy theories are extraordinarily rare. The vast majority of people who claim to be believers are in fact actors being paid by Alex Jone
Farewell Commander (Score:5, Informative)
There are only 4 remaining Apollo astronauts:
Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17, first (and only) scientist on the Moon
Charles Duke - Apollo 16
David Scott - Apollo 15
Buzz Aldrin - Apollo 11
There are also 3 remaining Apollo astronauts who completed circum-Lunar missions:
James Lovell - Apollo 13
Fred Haise - Apollo 13
Thomas Stafford - Apollo 10
An era is passing.
Frank Borman is not dead but the road with his nam (Score:2)
Frank Borman is not dead but the road with his name needs to be bypassed.
Re: (Score:2)
You're right, Apollo 8. I thought it was 4 and 4, just forgot that 8 had left LEO.
Re: (Score:3)
Jim Lovell did two circum-lunar missions. Apollo 13, and Apollo 8.
For that matter I'm pretty sure the other two Apollo 8 astronauts, Frank Bormann and William Anders, are still alive.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And I thought I knew a lot of space trivia . . . Had to look that one up. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Inevitable (Score:1)
This is just like Final Destination! Just took a while.
Final Destination so if Ken Mattingly went up 13 (Score:2)
Final Destination so if Ken Mattingly went up 13 they would of all died?
and he got an vision and faked exposure to German measles?
Re: (Score:1)
Final Destination so if Ken Mattingly went up 13 they would of all died?
Exactly, something would have happened if he had been on that ship and BAM!
RIP (Score:3)
You will be missed. I hope NASA at some point has the new moon astronauts erect a monument on the moon to these pioneers. Or better yet, on Mars.
Heroes of my time (Score:2)