Apollo astronaut Ken Mattingly has died

Astronaut Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II, who helped the crew of Apollo 13 safely return to Earth after an explosion, has died, NASA said Thursday. He passed away Tuesday at age 87.

What is Mattingly’s legacy? He started his career with the U.S. Navy and joined the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School before NASA recruited him for the astronaut class in 1966. Mattingly was a command module pilot for Apollo 16 and spacecraft commander for space shuttle missions STS-4 and STS 51-C. He also provided timely decisions during the “successful failure” of the Apollo 13 mission, where an explosion prevented three astronauts from participating in the third planned lunar landing. Mattingly worked alongside NASA engineers and flight control teams to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth. Later, he became one of 24 people to fly to the moon. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that Mattingly was essential to the success of the Apollo Program, calling him “one of our country’s heroes.” 

Dig deeper: Read Jamie Dean’s report in WORLD Magazine on Charlie Duke, an astronaut who joined Mattingly and John Young on the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.