Ken Mattingly is Now 85

Wednesday was Ken Mattingly’s 85th birthday. As I pointed out ten years ago when he turned 75, and five years ago after he turned 80, this retired admiral is the youngest among the two dozen who ever ventured farther than low earth orbit, all explorers of the moon. Twelve of them landed and walked the lunar surface, and the other twelve like Mattingly orbited the moon (or looped around it in Haise and Swigert’s case). Five of his peers have died in the five years since Mattingly turned 80, so now four of the walkers are still alive, as are seven of the orbiters. The oldest of the living, Frank Borman, is 93, and none who have died lived past 88 years old.

Five years ago I wrote that we had a decade or so remaining before their feats passed into legend. At that time I had no expectation that any new astronauts will venture again even 1,000 miles above the earth’s surface before all the lunar astronauts will have died. That is still the current trajectory, but there is a chance it may not be so.

Something I have kept in mind: After Amundsen reached the south pole at the end of 1911 and Scott did so a month later, it was not until the austral spring of 1956 that anyone set foot at the south pole again. After a 45 year pause, the last second of southern latitude has been continuously manned for 63 years now.