Ken Mattingly

Thomas Kenneth (Ken) Mattingly II (born March 17, 1936) is an American astronaut who flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4, and STS-51-C missions.

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He was a student at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School when NASA selected him as an astronaut in April 1966. His first flight assignment was Command Module pilot on the Apollo 13 mission, but he was removed from the mission three days before the scheduled launch because he was exposed to German measles. He thereby missed the dramatic in-flight explosion and ultimately safe return of the crew. However, he was involved in helping the crew figure out how to conserve as much power as possible for re-entry. He finally flew as Command Module pilot on Apollo 16. Commander John Young, Lunar Module pilot Charles Duke, and Mattingly were launched on April 16, 1972. While Young and Duke explored the lunar surface for three days, Mattingly used instruments mounted in the service module from an altitude of 100 km to photographically and geochemically map a band of the lunar surface around the equator.

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Following his return to earth, Mattingly served in astronaut managerial positions in the Space Shuttle development program. He was named to command the fourth and final test flight of the shuttle Columbia. On June 27, 1982, he and pilot Henry Hartsfield were launched on a seven-day mission during which they thoroughly tested the shuttle systems and operated the spaceplane's first military payload. Mattingly's final entry into space came on January 24, 1985, as commander of Discovery on the 15th shuttle flight. During three days in orbit, he and a crew of four deployed a military satellite from the cargo bay.

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Thereafter he retired from NASA and the Navy (with the rank of Rear Admiral), and entered the aerospace business. He worked as a Director in Grumman's Space Station Support Division. He then headed the Atlas booster program for General Dynamics in San Diego, California. At Lockheed Martin he was Vice President in charge of the X-33 development program.

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In the movie Apollo 13, which is about the actual failed lunar mission which Ken Mattingly was supposed to have been on, he is played by Gary Sinise. There is little physical resemblance between Mattingly and Sinise, but interestingly, they have the same birthday.

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A native of Chicago, Illinois, Mattingly graduated with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1958 from Auburn University where he also served as Student Government Association president.

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March 17: March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). There are 289 days remaining....

1936: 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar)....

American: :This page disambiguates the many uses of American. For an article about those various uses, please see Use of the word American....

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