Ken Mattingly
Thomas Kenneth " Ken " Mattingly II ( born March 17, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois ) is a former American astronaut.
Study and military service
Mattingly attended Miami Edison High School in Miami and then studied aeronautical engineering at Auburn University in Alabama. After graduation he joined in 1958 in the U.S. Navy where he was trained as a pilot. He served on the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1965 he studied at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School.
Apollo
Mattingly applied at NASA and was presented on April 4, 1966, the fifth group of astronauts to the public. As a specialty he should especially take care of the development of space suits for the moon landing.
He was already the end of 1966 the support crew of the third manned Apollo flight allocated the time was still under the project name and e mission was later numbered as Apollo 8. Mattingly worked inter alia as connecting speaker ( Capcom ). Even with the historic mission of Apollo 11, he was back at the Support Department and held as Capcom connection to the team.
Since he was one of the experts for the Apollo spacecraft, he was assigned on August 6, 1969 as CM pilot for the Apollo 13 mission, without having been previously in a replacement team. A few days before the launch, on April 6, 1970, it turned out that the replacement of the lunar module pilot Charles Duke was infected with rubella and Ken Mattingly, however, was not immune. In order to eliminate the risk that Mattingly fell ill during the flight to the moon, he was replaced on 9 April by the Reserve pilots John Leonard Swigert.
Mattingly did not get rubella and was instrumental in the rescue operation, as the Apollo 13 astronauts came by an explosion on board in mortal danger. In the Hollywood movie about this mission (Apollo 13, 1995) he was portrayed by Gary Sinise.
His first space flight occurred Mattingly then on 16 April 1972, as a pilot of the command module of Apollo 16, commanded by John Young. On the flight back from the moon Mattingly left the spaceship Casper for spacewalks, which was not intended for Apollo 13.
At the last Apollo flight (Apollo 17) in December 1972 served Mattingly again as Capcom.
Space Shuttle
After completion of the Apollo moon program Mattingly took over in 1973 the management of the Astronaut Office support for future space shuttle. In 1978 he became technical assistant for test flights with the manager of the space flight test program. He became head of the working group for the start and re-entry in the Astronaut Office until he prepared from April 1981 back to active service as an astronaut the end of 1979.
For the Shuttle test flights STS -2 in November 1981 and STS -3 in March 1982 he was assigned as a replacement commander. From June 27 to July 4, 1982 Mattingly then completed his second spaceflight. He commanded the STS -4 flight test of the Space Shuttle Columbia. As a pilot Henry Hartsfield was on board.
In 1983, Mattingly led a NASA department, which worked closely with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Mattingly was assigned as commander for the flight STS- 10, which should bring in November 1983, a reconnaissance satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense into orbit, but was canceled due to delays. Also another flight (STS -41 -E), in which Mattingly in July 1984 should have the command, had to be canceled.
On January 24, 1985 Mattingly was able to perform his third space flight with the shuttle Discovery. He commanded the STS- 51- C in a commitment to the Department of Defense, in which several satellites have been exposed.
In these three space flights Mattingly spent 21 days in space.
According to the NASA
In June 1986, Mattingly left NASA and returned to the U.S. Navy, where he worked as a manager for satellite programs. He left the Navy in 1990 with the rank of Rear Admiral and went into industry.
In Grumman in Reston, he worked at the space station program until he moved in 1993 to General Dynamics in San Diego, where he took over the responsibility for the Atlas rocket. His business was sold to Martin Marietta and incorporated into the company Lockheed Martin, where Mattingly temporarily led the development of the Space Shuttle X-33.
Since 1998, Mattingly managing director of Rocket Development Company in Los Alamitos, California, a company that focuses on low-cost carrier systems. In parallel, he is Chairman of the Board since July 1999 the parent company, Universal Space Network.
Ken Mattingly has been divorced twice and has a son from his first marriage.
Links and Documents
- NASA: Biography (English)
- Spacefacts.de: Short Biography
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- Spaceman (United States)
- Apollo crew
- Space Shuttle crew
- NASA
- Military Space of the United States
- Pilot
- Rear Admiral (United States Navy )
- Americans
- Born in 1936
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