Astronaut
After unsuccessfully applying for NASA's second and third astronaut selections, Swigert was accepted into the astronaut corps as part of NASA Astronaut Group 5, in April 1966. Swigert became a specialist on the Apollo command module: he was one of the few astronauts who requested to be command-module pilots.
Swigert was one of three astronauts aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission, which was launched on April 11, 1970. Originally part of the backup crew for the mission, he was assigned to the mission three days before launch, replacing astronaut Ken Mattingly. The prime crew had been exposed to German Measles (the rubella virus) and, because Mattingly alone had no immunity to the disease, NASA did not want to risk his falling ill during any critical phases of the flight. Incidentally, this made Swigert the first American bachelor astronaut to fly in space.
The mission was the third lunar-landing attempt, but was aborted after the rupture of an oxygen tank on the spacecraft's service module. Swigert was the astronaut who made the famous dramatic announcement, "Houston, we've had a problem here". Swigert, along with fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, returned safely to Earth on April 17 after about 5 days and 23 hours in space, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom later that year. Because of the free return trajectory on this mission, it is likely that Lovell, Swigert, and Haise hold the record for the greatest distance that human beings have traveled from Earth.
Swigert received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
Read more about this topic: Jack Swigert
Famous quotes containing the word astronaut:
“The report reflects incredibly terrible judgments, shockingly sparse concern for human life, instances of officials lacking the courage to exercise the responsibilities of their high office and some very bewildering thought processes.”
—Jane Jarrell Smith, U.S. widow of American astronaut Michael J. Smith. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 13 (June 30, 1986)
“I’m not making light of prayers here, but of so-called school prayer, which bears as much resemblance to real spiritual experience as that freeze-dried astronaut food bears to a nice standing rib roast. From what I remember of praying in school, it was almost an insult to God, a rote exercise in moving your mouth while daydreaming or checking out the cutest boy in the seventh grade that was a far, far cry from soul-searching.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)