Swigert Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, unmarried. Born in Denver, Colorado, USA. Natural causes - Complications from cancer.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 5 - 1966. Deceased Entered space service: 4 April 1966. Left space service: April 1973. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 5.95 days.

NAME: John L. Swigert Jr.

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Swigert was born August 30, 1931, in Denver, Colorado.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from University of Colorado in 1953. Master of Science in aerospace science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965. Master of Business Administration from the University of Hartford in 1967.

EXPERIENCE: Swigert served with the Air Force from 1953 to 1956 as a fighter pilot in Japan and Korea. He then served with the Air National Guard in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Swigert was selected by NASA as an astronaut in April 1966. He was named backup Command Module Pilot for Apollo 13. Just days before the mission he replaced the prime Command Module Pilot, Thomas K. Mattingly, following Mattingly's exposure to German measles. Swigert, Commander Jim Lovell Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise were to have explored the moon's Fra Mauro highlands in April 1970, but en route, an oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded, resulting in loss of all Command Module oxygen and electric power. The crew used their still-attached Lunar Module as a lifeboat. Together with ground controllers, they made several manual manoeuvres using the Lunar Module engine and made it safely back to Earth after a harrowing trip.

Swigert resigned from NASA and between 1973 and 1977 he was executive director of the Committee on Science and Technology in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1978, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Colorado. He then held positions with BDM Corporation and International Gold and Minerals, Ltd., before returning to politics.

On November 2, 1982, Swigert won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's Sixth Congressional District with 64% of the vote. On December 27, 1982, a week before he would have taken his seat in Congress, Swigert died in Washington, DC, of complications from cancer. He was never married and had no children.

• 11 April 1970 Flight: Apollo 13. Flight Up: Apollo 13. Flight Back: Apollo 13. Flight Time: 5.95 days.

4 April 1966 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 5 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot-astronauts for the Apollo Applications Program (then planned as 10 lunar landings after Apollo 11 and 30 Apollo flights to earth-orbit space stations).. Qualifications: Qualified jet pilot with minimum 1,000 flight-hours, bachleor's degree in engineering or physical or biological sciences, under 35 years old, under 183 cm height, excellent health. US citizen.. 351 applications (including six women and a legless US Navy pilot). All 19, except X-15 astronaut Engle, would fly into space on Apollo or Skylab missions. Engle and six others would fly shuttle missions.

At 8:13 p.m. EST a 217-second S-IVB auxiliary propulsion system burn aimed the S-IVB for a lunar target point so accurately that another burn was not required. The S-IVB/IU impacted the lunar surface at 8:10 p.m. EST on April 14 at a speed of 259 meters per second. Impact was 137.1 kilometers from the Apollo 12 seismometer. The seismic signal generated by the impact lasted 3 hours 20 minutes and was so strong that a ground command was necessary to reduce seismometer gain and keep the recording on the scale. The suprathermal ion detector experiment, also deployed by the Apollo 12 crew, recorded a jump in the number of ions from zero at the time of impact up to 2,500 shortly thereafter and then back to a zero count. Scientists theorized that ionization had been produced by 6,300 K to 10,300 K (6,000 degrees C to 10,000 degrees C) temperature generated by the impact or that particles had reached an altitude of 60 kilometers from the lunar surface and had been ionized by sunlight.

Meanwhile back in the CSM/LM, the crew had been performing the routine housekeeping duties associated with the period of the translunar coast. At 30:40 ground elapsed time a midcourse correction maneuver took the spacecraft off a free-return trajectory in order to control the arrival time at the moon. Ensuring proper lighting conditions at the landing site. The maneuver placed the spacecraft on the desired trajectory, on which the closest approach to the moon would be 114.9 kilometers.

At 10:08 p.m. EST April 13, the crew reported an undervoltage alarm on the CSM main bus B, rapid loss of pressure in SM oxygen tank No. 2, and dropping current in fuel cells 1 and 3 to a zero reading. The loss of oxygen and primary power in the service module required an immediate abort of the mission. The astronauts powered up the LM, powered down the CSM, and used the LM systems for power and life support. The first maneuver following the abort decision was made with the descent propulsion system to place the spacecraft back in a free-return trajectory around the moon. After the spacecraft swung around the moon, another maneuver reduced the coast time back to earth and moved the landing point from the Indian Ocean to the South Pacific.