Legendary Astronaut Thomas Mattingly On Apollo 13 Mission Dies

NASA mourns the news of the death of former Astronaut Thomas Ken Mattingly (photo: dock. NASA)

This former astronaut is Retired Laksamada Muda Thomas K. (TK) Matanggly II. The person who played an important role at NASA died late last month at the age of 87.

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

NASA recalled Mattingly's contribution in the 1960s. At that time, Mattingly participated in the great Apollo project, a human landing mission on the moon from 1961 to 1975.

Mattingly should have been part of Apollo 13, the third mission to land on the moon. However, his involvement had to be canceled 72 hours before launch because the astronaut was hit by rubela.

After being withdrawn, Mattingly's role as Command module was replaced by Jack Swigert. However, bad events happened to the entire crew of the Apollo 13 plane until the incident was widely told and photographed into the film.

During the problem of hitting Apollo 13, Mattingly helped a lot by designing procedures to save power so that the plane on board could enter safely into the atmosphere.

"He stayed and made an important real-time decision to successfully take home the injured spacecraft and the crew of Apollo 13, NASA astronauts James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise," explained Nelson.

Thanks to his expertise, Mattingly was again appointed as the pilot of the command module for the Apollo 16 mission, which was also almost canceled because the engine on the command module was not functioning normally.

All of Mattingly's contributions during his time as NASA astronauts will always be remembered. What's more, Mattingly helped NASA a lot outside of the Apollo mission such as the STS-4 and STS 51-C shuttle missions.

He views the extent of the universe as a forum for endless possibilities. As a leader in an exploration mission, kindergarten will be remembered for daring to challenge unknown things for the future of our country," Nelson concluded.