Destiny had decided to entrust him with a mission other than the one for which he had been assigned. And he had done it successfully. NASA astronaut Thomas Mattingly, who helped bring back the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission safely through his efforts from the ground control cell, died Tuesday, Nov. 2, at the age of 87 years old, the US space agency announced.
While he was supposed to pilot the command module for Apollo 13’s flight to the Moon, Thomas Mattingly was grounded 72 hours before launch, after being exposed to rubella, said Bill Nelson, head of The NASA.
During the mission, which took place in April 1970, a tank explosion damaged the spacecraft when it was 320,000 kilometers from Earth. Thomas Mattingly, who ultimately did not become ill, then went to the mission control center and developed energy-saving procedures so that the vehicle could return to the atmosphere, saving the lives of James Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, the astronauts aboard the module, who, after circling the Moon without landing, landed in the Pacific.
Captain of two missions
The 1995 film Apollo 13, starring Gary Sinise as Mattingly, popularized the mission of the same name.
Thomas Mattingly began his career as a pilot in naval aviation before being selected to become an astronaut in 1966. At NASA, he was pilot of the command module of the Apollo 16 mission and captain of two shuttle missions. spatial.
“Thomas’ contributions have advanced our learning beyond space,” said Nelson.
