The circumstances surrounding how he got it back are so remarkable that the story has attained folklore status in the annals of space exploration.
Was the apollo 16 mission ken mattingly went on successful.
He performed observations and experiments from orbit while his crewmates john young and charles duke did 20 plus hours of exploration.
The backup crew for apollo 11 was james lovell cdr fred haise lmp and ken mattingly cmp.
He then stayed at nasa long enough to command two missions of the space shuttle which incidentally was approved by congress while he was flying on apollo 16 he and his mission commander john young were the only two astronauts who both went to the moon and flew the shuttle.
The second of apollo s j missions it was crewed by commander john young lunar module pilot charles duke and command module pilot ken mattingly launched from the kennedy space center in florida at 12 54 pm est on.
As ken mattingly had no natural immunity to the disease he was replaced as command module pilot by jack swigert.
Mattingly finally made it to the moon himself on apollo 16.
Former apollo astronaut charles charlie moss duke jr.
On this mission duke and john young landed at the descartes highlands and conducted three extravehicular activities evas.
John watts young september 24 1930 january 5 2018 was an american astronaut naval officer and aviator test pilot and aeronautical engineer he became the ninth person to walk on the moon as commander of the apollo 16 mission in 1972.
Mattingly was reassigned as command module pilot of duke s flight apollo 16.
According to duke on.
Mattingly command module pilot of apollo 16 and two time shuttle astronaut has come to pontefract to.
There wasn t an airplane big enough he adds with a wry smile.
Apollo 16 was the tenth crewed mission in the united states apollo space program the fifth and penultimate to land on the moon and the second to land in the lunar highlands.
I would encourage you to understand that the people that made apollo happen are not here says ken mattingly self effacingly.
They later became the prime crew for apollo 13 though mattingly was removed from the apollo 13 crew.
Instead mattingly made his first spaceflight in april 1972 going into lunar orbit as command module pilot of apollo 16.