John L. Swigert Jr. was an American astronaut who served as the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. He was born on August 30, 1931 in Denver, Colorado and grew up in the suburbs of Denver.
Swigert attended the University of Colorado and later received a degree in mechanical engineering. He later joined the U.S. Air Force and served as a pilot during the Korean War. After leaving the Air Force, Swigert worked as a test pilot for various aerospace companies before joining the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as an astronaut in 1966.
Swigert was originally not scheduled to fly on the Apollo 13 mission, but was added to the crew as a replacement for another astronaut just a few days before the launch. During the mission, an oxygen tank exploded on the spacecraft, causing a serious loss of power and oxygen. Swigert and the other astronauts, James Lovell and Fred Haise, were forced to use the lunar module as a lifeboat, making emergency repairs and conserving their resources in order to return safely to Earth.
Swigert’s calm and quick thinking during the crisis is credited with helping to save the lives of the crew. The Apollo 13 mission became known as a “successful failure” due to the crew’s ability to overcome the challenges and return to Earth safely.
Swigert died on December 27, 1982, just a few weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004.