posted 11-26-2023 09:40 AM               

Space Cover #729: Astronaut Ken Mattingly: A Tribute

Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II, Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.), passed away at age 87 on Oct. 31, 2023. Mattingly was a prime crew member on four NASA space flights, and flew on three of them, but is especially known for the one he didn't fly on: Apollo 13. Because of his exposure to German measles, he was removed from Apollo 13 just three days before launch and replaced by Jack Swigert. Reassigned, he flew as command module pilot on Apollo 16.

In addition to being a NASA Astronaut, he was a naval aviator, test pilot and aeronautical engineer. He also served as a Support Crew member on Apollo 8 and Apollo 11.

Mattingly spent 11 days in space on Apollo 16, including 64 orbits around the moon. He is one of 24 Apollo lunar astronauts and only he and John Young flew to the moon and also in space on the Space Shuttle. Mattingly also flew as commander on two Space Shuttle missions: STS-4 and STS-51C and totaled over 21 days in space.

The top cover above is an Apollo 13 Heritage Craft cover picturing the original Apollo 13 crew, including Mattingly. It's canceled for launch along with a Titusville, FL/Astronaut Trail Sta. hand cancel on the date of the oxygen tank explosion. Below it is a "look-alike" Apollo 13 insurance cover signed by Mattingly and the other Apollo 13 crew members. In every way it is identical to an actual Apollo 13 insurance cover, but is known to be autographed for a NASA official at KSC while the original crew was there for pre-flight training and then later signed by Jack Swigert.

The top cover is an Apollo 16 Heritage Craft cover picturing the crew. Below it is an undocumented Apollo 16 insurance cover signed by the crew (Such undocumented covers are sometimes called "Insurance-type covers"). While very possibly an actual insurance cover, it lacks any documentation - it was obtained many years ago from a fellow collector without any provenance - so it will remain a wonderful Apollo 16 crew signed cover, but only "possibly" an actual insurance cover.

On STS-4, the final Space Shuttle Orbital Flight Test, Mattingly and Hank Hartsfield flew Columbia on a seven-day, 112 orbit flight with landing at Edwards AFB on the Fourth of July, with President Reagan there to welcome them back. Then in 1985, Mattingly was spacecraft commander of STS-51C, the 15th Shuttle flight and the first of eleven Space Shuttle military DOD missions. Of note, 51C experienced very severe Solid Rocket Booster O-ring charring.

The top cover is an STS-4 landing cover, canceled with an EAFB, CA hand cancel and with well-applied and -placed autographs by Mattingly and Hartsfield. Below is an STS-51C crew signed cover signed by commander Mattingly and the other 51C crew members.

The cover at the top is an "Orbit" cover picturing the original Apollo 13 crew, with an inset picturing replacement crew member Jack Swigert. The other cover is an Apollo 16 Colorado "Silk" cover with a well-done cachet picturing Mattingly and the other two Apollo 16 crew members.

posted 11-27-2023 04:18 AM               

This one is post-Apollo and features a flight in the Grumman Gulfstream II Shuttle Training Aircraft: an aircraft that duplicated the Space Shuttle's approach profile and handling qualities, allowing pilots to simulate Shuttle landings prior to actually flying an Orbiter.

The crew on this particular training mission being Ken Mattingly (called Tom Mattingly on the typed cachet) with Anna Lee Fisher.

posted 11-27-2023 11:06 AM               

I was happy enough to purchase Hanson cover #1 at Heritage auction and crew patch cover #2 from Charlie. John Young signed both covers after he retired from NASA. However, Ken Mattingly refused to sign, even when Charlie, on my behalf, offered him 1,000 for each signature. So I went all the way to to Pontefract to get his signatures in 2014. Ken's speech was a great experience. 

posted 11-27-2023 01:25 PM               

I am so glad that you were able to acquire the flown covers, but at $10K for a Bishop variety, I was working with Duke on a few other things and delayed such a purchase. In looking back Walter, even though space funds of mine were not always available 25 years ago, it was a good offer. Such a flown moon cover stored inside LM-11/Orion while on the lunar surface is a different story today of its estimated value. Glad you were also able to have Young and Mattingly eventually sign both covers.

When working with Fred Haise along with the ASF and the AMF on a charity project of Haise's unused Apollo 13 emblem covers with no original cancels applied since the flight, it was hoped that Haise, Lovell, and Mattingly would sign the nearly 300 covers. As it turned out, Mattingly refused to sign the charity covers even after Haise and Lovell agreed to.

posted 11-27-2023 03:52 PM               

Ken, I think I bought the very cover you referred to. Charlie Duke offered it at Heritage Auctions for 10,000 $. It was not sold and I purchased it directly from Charlie. In the address he abbreviated Austria as AU instead of AT. Thus it went from New Braunsville, Texas to Australia. I wrote it to the transport company. They directed it to Paris. From there it once more went to Australia before reaching my home. In an attached certification Charlie stated that these covers were exposed to the vaccuum of the Moon during the Apollo 16 lunar EVAs. 

posted 11-27-2023 06:42 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Axman:
I had no idea Pontrefact was a hub of space endeavours...

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posted 11-28-2023 01:27 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by MartinAir:
That address mishap must have been nerve wracking...

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posted 11-28-2023 08:16 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by cosmos-walter:
...but also the only ones which were exposed to the vacuum on the Moon.

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posted 11-28-2023 08:44 AM               

In the first cover panel below are the primary two different mission crew signed emblem covers for Apollo 13 that were used as insurance covers. But note a third cachet variety by Heritage Crafts that I consider, but not completely verified, as a third insurance-type cover in which many were pre-launch crew signed while inside KSC Crew Quarters along with the Bishop and MSCSC well-known emblem covers.

The above selected Apollo 16 signed covers were by NASA Exchange and CKM, a VIP launch card, a signed Heritage Crafts, and an unusual ONC- KSC pre-launch signed with a scarce hand cancel at Kennedy Space Center.

For STS-4/Columbia, here are two more different cachet covers by AEPS and from another of my own firm, SpaceCoast Cover Service (SCCS), with a two- color rubber stamp servicers cachet. The twin crew or mission emblem covers for STS-4 are the same cachet that Bob has already featured, but different, in that those here are for launch with a machine and hand cancel (KSC/Orlando). Bob has a nice July 4th landing day postmark in 1982 at Edwards AFB, California.