Ken Mattingly

Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II was born on March 17, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, to Thomas Kenneth Mattingly and Constance Mason Mattingly (). His father, who had been hired by Eastern Airlines soon after his son's birth, moved the family to Hialeah, Florida. Aviation became part of Mattingly's life from a very young age; he later recalled that his "earliest memories...all had to do with airplanes". He was also a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity (Epsilon Alpha chapter). == Military career ==

Mattingly was commissioned in the U.S. Navy as an ensign in 1958 and received his aviator wings in 1960. He was then assigned to Attack Squadron Thirty-five (VA-35) at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, and flew Douglas A-1H Skyraider propeller aircraft aboard the aircraft carrier from 1960 to 1963. In July 1963, he was transferred to Heavy Attack Squadron Eleven (VAH-11) at Naval Air Station Sanford, Florida, where he flew Douglas A-3B Skywarrior jet aircraft for two years and deployed aboard . where future astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Karol J. Bobko were his classmates and his instructors included Charles Duke, his Apollo 16 crewmate, and Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., whom Mattingly later commanded on STS-4. == NASA career ==

Selection and training On September 10, 1965, NASA began the selection process for the fifth astronaut group. From a pool of 351 applicants, NASA picked 159 candidates who met the basic qualifications, including being United States citizens born on or after December 1, 1929, who were no more than six feet tall. They were also required to have at least 1,000 hours of flight time in jet aircraft. Mattingly had previously shown little interest and inclination to apply for the astronaut program, but his views changed at the Air Force Test Pilot School where he and his classmates were offered the chance to apply for either NASA or the United States Air Force (USAF) Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Mattingly and Mitchell chose the latter and were rejected. The deadline for applying for the NASA group had passed, but one of their instructors was able to get NASA to accept their applications. Mattingly, a lieutenant in the Navy, Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 At first, Mattingly was part of the support crew for Apollo 8. Mattingly served as CAPCOM during Apollo 8's second television transmission and subsequent preparation for trans-Earth injection. Mattingly then trained in parallel with Bill Anders for Apollo 11 as backup command module pilot, because Anders was going to retire from NASA in August 1969 and, in case of mission delay, would be unavailable. As a result, he missed the dramatic in-flight explosion that crippled the spacecraft. On the ground, Mattingly played a large role in helping the crew solve the problem of power conservation during re-entry. Apollo 16 The swapout from Apollo 13 placed Mattingly on the crew that flew Apollo 16 (April 16–27, 1972), the fifth crewed lunar landing mission. The crew included John Young (Commander), Mattingly (Command Module Pilot), and Charlie Duke (Lunar Module Pilot). The mission assigned to Apollo 16 was to collect samples from the lunar highlands near the crater Descartes. While in lunar orbit the scientific instruments aboard the Command/Service Module Casper extended the photographic and geochemical mapping of a belt around the lunar equator. A combined total of 26 separate scientific experiments were conducted in lunar orbit and during cislunar coast. This experiment was a pathfinder for the first commercial venture to capitalize on the unique characteristics of space. The crew is also credited with effecting an in-flight repair that enabled them to activate the first operational "Getaway Special" (composed of nine experiments that ranged from algae and duckweed growth in space to fruit fly and brine shrimp genetic studies). STS-4 completed 112 orbits of the Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on July 4, 1982. STS-51-C, the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on January 24, 1985. The crew included Mattingly (spacecraft commander), Loren Shriver (pilot), James Buchli and Ellison Onizuka (Mission Specialists), and Gary Payton (Manned Spaceflight Engineer). STS-51-C performed its DOD mission, which included deployment of a modified Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) vehicle from the . Landing occurred on January 27, 1985. File:Commodore Thomas K. Mattingly II, USN (2).jpg|Mattingly in his Navy uniform in 1985 == Post-NASA career ==

In 1985, Mattingly retired from NASA, then retired from the Navy the following year with the two-star rank of Rear admiral (upper half), and entered the private sector. 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. Mattingly logged 7,200 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours in jet aircraft. Mattingly was a member of many organizations. He was an associate fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; fellow, American Astronautical Society; and member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and the U.S. Naval Institute. == Personal life and death==

In 1970, he married Elizabeth Dailey. Mattingly died in Arlington, Virginia, on October 31, 2023, at age 87. NASA announced his death two days later on November 2. == Awards and honors ==

Mattingly was a recipient of numerous awards. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2); Johnson Space Center Certificate of Commendation (1970); JSC Group Achievement Award (1972); Navy Distinguished Service Medal; Navy Expeditionary Medal; National Defense Service Medal; NASA Space Flight Medal; Navy Astronaut Wings; Society of Experimental Test Pilots Ivan C. Kincheloe Award (1972); Delta Tau Delta Achievement Award (1972); Auburn Alumni Engineers Council Outstanding Achievement Award (1972); American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award for 1972; AIAA Haley Astronautics Award for 1973; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him the V. M. Komarov Diploma in 1973; Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1982). He was one of 24 Apollo astronauts who were inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997. His name also appears on The Astronaut Monument in Húsavík, Iceland, commemorating 32 Apollo astronauts who were sent to Iceland for geological training in the 1960s. == In media ==

Mattingly was portrayed by Gary Sinise in the 1995 movie Apollo 13 and by Željko Ivanek in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. Interviews with Mattingly were also used as part of the narrative track on the 1989 documentary film For All Mankind. == References ==