At the age of 87, astronaut Ken Mattingly passes away

NASA has announced the passing of astronaut Ken Mattingly. He is most known for his groundwork in assisting in the safe return of the damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft to Earth. He was 87.

In a statement released on Thursday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated, "We lost one of our country's heroes on October 31."

In 1966, Mattingly—a former pilot in the Navy—joined NASA. According to NASA, he contributed to the development of the spacesuit and backpack used on the Apollo moon missions.

But he didn't actually fly in space until 1972, when he orbited the moon in the Apollo 16 command module and two other crew members made surface landings.

Mattingly spacewalked to gather film cannisters containing images he had taken of the moon's surface during the return journey to Earth.

Later in life, Mattingly led two space shuttle missions before retiring as a rear admiral from both the agency and the Navy.