Fred Haise is an American astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force pilot. He is best known for his role as the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, which was a manned mission to the moon that was famously called off due to a malfunction in the spacecraft’s oxygen tanks.
Haise was born in 1933 in Biloxi, Mississippi and grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi. He received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1956, and later served in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot.
In 1966, Haise was selected as an astronaut by NASA and participated in the Apollo 8 mission as a backup crew member. He was then chosen to serve on the Apollo 13 mission and spent more than 140 hours in space during the mission, which was ultimately successful despite the setbacks.
Haise continued to work for NASA as an astronaut and also worked on the development of the Space Shuttle program. He retired from NASA in 1979.