Ken Mattingly Thomas Kenneth " Ken " Mattingly II , ( born March 17 , 1936 ) is a retired American astronaut , Naval Aviator and Rear Admiral in the United States Navy who flew on the Apollo 16 , STS - 4 and STS - 51 - C missions . He had been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13 , but was held back due to concerns about a potential illness ( which he did not contract ) . He later flew as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 16 , making him one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon . Biography . Early career . Born in Chicago , Illinois , Mattingly attended school in Hialeah , Florida , and was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank , Life Scout . He graduated from Miami Edison High School and went on to receive a B . S . degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Auburn University in 1958 , where he was also a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity ( Epsilon Alpha chapter ) . He joined the U . S . Navy as an Ensign in 1958 and received his aviator wings in 1960 . He was then assigned to Attack Squadron THIRTY - FIVE ( VA - 35 ) at NAS Oceana , Virginia and flew A - 1H Skyraider aircraft aboard the from 1960 to 1963 . In July 1963 , he served in Heavy Attack Squadron ELEVEN ( VAH - 11 ) at NAS Sanford , Florida , where he flew the A - 3B Skywarrior aircraft for two years and deployed aboard the . NASA career . Mattingly was a student at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB , California when NASA selected him as an astronaut in April 1966 . Apollo 13 . Mattingly ' s first assignment was to be the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 13 mission . Three days prior to launch , he was removed from the mission due to exposure to German measles ( which he never contracted ) and was replaced by the backup CM pilot , Jack Swigert . As a result , he missed the dramatic in - flight explosion that crippled the spacecraft . However , Mattingly was involved in helping the crew solve the problem of power conservation during re - entry . Apollo 16 . The swapout from Apollo 13 placed Mattingly on the crew that would fly Apollo 16 ( April 16 – 27 , 1972 ) , the fifth manned lunar landing mission . The crew included John W . Young ( commander ) , Mattingly ( command module pilot ) , and Charles M . Duke , Jr . ( lunar module pilot ) . It was Duke ' s German measles that led to the Mattingly - Swigert swap on Apollo 13 . The mission assigned to Apollo 16 was to collect samples from the lunar highlands near the crater Descartes . While in lunar orbit the scientific instruments aboard the command and service module " Casper " extended the photographic and geochemical mapping of a belt around the lunar equator . Twenty - six separate scientific experiments were conducted both in lunar orbit and during cislunar coast . Major emphasis was placed on using man as an orbital observer , capitalizing on the human eye ' s unique capabilities and man ' s inherent curiosity . During the return leg of the mission , Mattingly carried out an Extra - vehicular activity ( EVA ) to retrieve film and data packages from the science bay on the side of the service module . Although the mission of Apollo 16 was terminated one day early , due to concern over several spacecraft malfunctions , all major objectives were accomplished through the ceaseless efforts of the mission support team and were made possible by the most rigorous preflight planning yet associated with an Apollo mission . Space Shuttle flights . 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 . 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 . Mattingly received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1972 . Post - NASA . In 1985 , Mattingly retired from NASA and retired from the Navy in 1986 with the two - star rank of rear admiral ( upper half ) , and entered the private sector . He worked as a director in Grumman ' s Space Station Support Division . He then headed the Atlas booster program for General Dynamics in San Diego , California . At Lockheed Martin he was vice president in charge of the X - 33 development program . He is currently working at Systems Planning and Analysis in Virginia . Mattingly is the youngest of the surviving Apollo astronauts who have flown to the Moon . In media . Mattingly was portrayed in the 1995 movie " Apollo 13 " by Gary Sinise . He was portrayed in the 1998 miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " by Željko Ivanek .