Astronaut Thomas Mattingly has died at age 87.
Mattingly was a key commander during the Apollo 16 mission to the moon in 1972.
He also helped bring the crew of the Apollo 13
back to earth after an explosion threatened their lunar mission.
He was initially set to be on that mission but stayed
behind after he was exposed to rubella just before the launch.
NASA administrator, Bill Nelson called him quote, one of our country's heroes.
He said,
Mattingly quote provided key real time decisions to successfully bring
home the wounded spacecraft and the crew of Apollo 13.