Remembering Ken Mattingly, one of the heroes of Apollo 13 as he departs

NASA is mourning the death of astronaut Thomas Kenneth Mattingly, who solidified himself as one of the heroes for his invaluable contributions in saving the Apollo 13 crew. 

Mattingly died on October 31 at the age of 87, however, the reason for his death has not been specified.

Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1966, Ken Mattingly also contributed to other big missions like the Apollo 8, Apollo 11 and Apollo 16 and visited space during the Space Shuttle era.

"We lost one of our country’s heroes on October 31. NASA astronaut TK Mattingly was key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout history," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

The event which made Mattingly a hero

It was on April 11, 1970, when the oxygen tank of the Apollo 13 spacecraft exploded shortly after leaving Earth. It was just five-and-a-half hours since lift off and the three astronauts - James Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert Jr - had four days of excruciating lunar journey ahead of them.

Fortunately for Mattingly, he was replaced as the pilot of the module by Swigert just 72 hours before the launch due to exposure to German measles.

Since he knew every intimate detail of the spacecraft thanks to all the training, Mattingly contributed precious information to the mission control center in Houston where engineers were scrambling to safely bring the trio home.

More than 3.2 lakh km away from home, the Apollo 13 crew had the challenge of surviving the thirst and bitter cold in the darkness of space after the module's supply of electricity, light and water was lost.

In the 1995 movie 'Apollo 13' starring Tom Hanks, Mattingly, played by Gary Sinise, was shown giving step-by-step instructions to the command module pilot from a simulated Command module from Houston.

"Perhaps his most dramatic role at NASA was after exposure to rubella just before the launch of Apollo 13. He stayed behind and provided key real-time decisions to successfully bring home the wounded spacecraft and the crew of Apollo 13 – NASA astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise," NASA chief Nelson said.

Thanks to those instructions, the crew was able to manually steer the spacecraft and splashdown safely in the Pacific Ocean.

According to NASA, Mattingly logged a total of 504 hours in space including the 1 hour and 13 minutes of his spacewalk in the Apollo 16 mission. 

He was assigned as the command module pilot for Apollo 16 in 1972 followed by Space Shuttle missions in 1982 and 1985. The veteran also had 7,200 hours of flight time in his name including 5,000 hours on a jet.