page_title: Ken Mattingly
section_title: Space Shuttle flights
hierarchical_section_title: Ken Mattingly / NASA career / Space Shuttle flights
caption_attribution_description: English: Columbia Space Shuttle astronauts Commander Thomas K. Mattingly, foreground, and Pilot Henry W. Hartsfield salute President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, as the astronauts begin the customary walk-around inspection of the orbiter after landing. Mattingly and Hartsfield were the first to land the Shuttle on a concrete runway. The landing proved that the shuttle could return safely to a precisely targeted location on Earth.
context_page_description: RADM Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II, USN, Ret. is a former American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and astronaut who flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4 and STS-51-C missions.
  Mattingly had been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but three days prior to launch, he was held back and removed from the mission due to exposure to German measles. He later flew as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 16 and made 64 lunar orbits, making him one of 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Mattingly and his commander from Apollo 16, John Young, are the only people to have flown to the Moon and also a Space Shuttle orbital mission.
  During Apollo 16's return flight to Earth, Mattingly performed an extravehicular activity to retrieve film cassettes from the exterior of the spacecraft, the command and service module. It was the second "deep space" EVA in history, at great distance from any planetary body. As of 2020, it remains one of only three such EVAs which have taken place, all during the Apollo program's J-missions.
context_section_description: Following his return to Earth, Mattingly served in astronaut managerial positions in the Space Shuttle development program.
  Mattingly was named to command STS-4, the fourth and final orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 27, 1982 with Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., as the pilot. This 7-day mission was designed to further verify ascent and entry phases of shuttle missions; perform continued studies of the effects of long-term thermal extremes on the orbiter subsystems; and conduct a survey of orbiter-induced contamination on the orbiter payload bay. Additionally, the crew operated several scientific experiments located in the orbiter's cabin and in the payload bay. These experiments included the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System experiment designed to investigate the separation of biological materials in a fluid according to their surface electrical charge. This experiment was a pathfinder for the first commercial venture to capitalize on the unique characteristics of space. The crew is also credited with effecting an in-flight repair which enabled them to activate the first operational "Getaway Special" (composed of nine experiments that ranged from algae and duckweed growth in space to fruit fly and brine shrimp genetic studies). STS-4 completed 112 orbits of the Earth before landing on a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on July 4, 1982. Mattingly and Hartsfield were greeted by President Ronald Reagan after the landing; Reagan recognized the pair, both graduates of Auburn University, as "you two sons of Auburn" in his welcoming speech.
  STS-51-C, the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on January 24, 1985. The crew included Ken Mattingly (spacecraft commander), Loren Shriver (pilot), James Buchli and Ellison Onizuka (Mission Specialists), and Gary Payton (DOD Payload Specialist). STS-51-C performed its DOD mission which included deployment of a modified Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) vehicle from the Space Shuttle Discovery. Landing occurred on January 27, 1985.
caption: Mattingly (foreground) with Henry Hartsfield salutes President Ronald Reagan, next to First Lady Nancy Reagan, after the STS-4 landing on July 4, 1982
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