An astronaut’s amusing “revenge”…

Mattingly: flew to the moon with typhoid Mary

Ken Mattingly was a member of the prime crew for Apollo 13. But, he was removed from the crew just days before the flight.

It turns out, astronaut Charles Duke, who was on the backup crew, had caught measles and accidentally exposed the prime crew to the disease. Mattingly was the only member of the prime crew who never had measles. So, only he lost his seat—which would have been Mattingly’s first space flight. Ironically, Ken never contracted the measles.

But losing the flight was a very big disappointment. Of course, he missed being on the most terrifying Apollo mission—but he was scheduled for a later flight.

And so it came to pass that Ken Mattingly would go to the moon aboard Apollo 16. And who would be sitting next to him? Charles Duke!

When Duke boarded the spacecraft, he found a sticker put on his chair by Mattingly. It said “typhoid Mary’s seat”. Duke rode with the sticker all the way to the moon.

Note: A few years back, that sticker came up at an auction; I really wanted it because the story behind it is one of my favorites…but it went for too a high a price.