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The "Apollo 13" crew in 1970: James Lovell, TK Mattingly, Fred Haise.

DLNews NASA:

US astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly, who involuntarily became the savior of the ill-fated Apollo 13 space mission, is dead. "TK," as he was known, died on October 31 at 87.

Saved! The module with the "Apollo 13" astronauts was recovered from the ocean after landing.

As NASA representative Bill Nelson explained, Mattingly had been assigned as a command module pilot for the Apollo 13 moon mission in 1970 but had to cancel the flight 72 hours before take-off due to illness.

After an explosion on board the spaceship, which was on its way to the moon without him, Mattingly developed an energy-saving procedure from Earth that enabled the spacecraft to return safely to the atmosphere. Mattingly probably saved the lives of his astronaut colleagues James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise.

The event was filmed in 1995 in the movie "Apollo 13", in which US actor Gary Sinise plays Mattingly. Apollo 13: "Houston, we have a problem."

Mattingly had started his career as a pilot in the US Navy and was accepted into the astronaut class in 1966. Mattingly's contribution has given mankind much knowledge "beyond space," said Nelson.