Ken Mattingly

Mueller believed Shepard to be too inexperienced to command an Apollo mission, and requested that he and his crew be given more time to train.

As a result, Shepard, Mitchell, and Rooser owe a bump to Apollo 14, and the backup crew for Apollo 11, consisting of Commander Jim Lovell, CMP Ken Mattingly, and LMP Fred Hayes, swapped in for Apollo 13.

In the movie Apollo 13, this crew change is inaccurately described by Jim Lovell as being due to Al Shepard's ear infection flaring up again.

When approached about the swap, the real-life Lovell, originally slated to command Apollo 14, reportedly replied, Sure, why not? What could possibly be the difference between Apollo 13 and Apollo 14? At the time, 41-year-old Jim Lovell was the most experienced astronaut in the American space program, with a whopping 572 total hours, or about 24 days, logged in space.

Bubble, along with Frank Borman and Bill Anders, was also on the crew of Apollo 8, which in December 1968 made the historic first flight around the Moon.

Bubble's Apollo 13 crewmates, by contrast, were both rookies.

Ken Mattingly, also a former naval aviator, had served aboard the USS Saratoga and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt before being selected as part of NASA's Astronaut Group 5 in 1966.

He served as Capsule Communicator for the Apollo 8 mission before being assigned as backup crew for Apollo 11.

It was tension.

One hour before we were to land on the moon on Apollo 16, Ken Mattingly reported a problem that that was so serious that we weren't going to get to land.

And so we came around from the backside and no landing.

And so we reported this situation.

What rock are you living under? The man, he was Lieutenant Dan and Forrest Gump.

Ken Mattingly in October.

Apollo 13.

He was in Green Mile.

Uh, it was, uh, tension.

Uh, one hour before we were to land on the Moon, uh, on Apollo 16, uh, Ken Mattingly reported a problem that, that we weren't, that was so serious that we weren't going to get to land.

And so we came around from the backside and no landing.

And, uh, so, uh, we reported the situation.