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Jack Swigert

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Jack Swigert

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Also known as John Leonard "Jack" Swigert, Jr.'''

NASA Astronaut, Pilot (1931-1982)

OverviewAI-generated

Jack Swigert was an American politician, military officer, astronaut, and aircraft pilot. Born in Denver on August 30, 1931, he served in the United States Air Force and was a member of NASA Astronaut Group 5. He worked for NASA and was affiliated with the Republican Party. Swigert received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and induction into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

He was educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Hartford. Swigert spent 8,574 units of time in space. He died of natural causes in Washington, D.C., on December 27, 1982.

Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film & TV

Acting

Known for

  • Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back — Himself1994

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1931
Active to
1982

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
1
Total plays
1

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Jack+Swigert">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Jack Swigert

Key facts

Preceded by
District established
Succeeded by
Daniel Schaefer (as member)
Born
John Leonard Swigert Jr. , ( 1931-08-30 ) August 30, 1931, Denver , Colorado, U.S.
Died
December 27, 1982 (1982-12-27) (aged 51) , Washington, D.C. , U.S.
Resting place
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Party
Republican
Education
University of Colorado, Boulder ( BS ) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ( MS ) University of Hartford ( MBA )
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Allegiance
United States
Branch
United States Air Force
Service years
1953–1956 (active), 1956–1965 (reserve)
Rank
Captain
Unit
Massachusetts Air National Guard (1957–1960) Connecticut Air National Guard (1960–1965)
Time in space
5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes
Selection
NASA Group 5 (1966)
Missions
Apollo 13
Retirement
August 1977

via Wikipedia infobox

~12 min read

Encyclopedic overview

John Leonard Swigert Jr. (August 30, 1931 – December 27, 1982) was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of Apollo 13, he became one of 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the Moon. Due to the "slingshot" route around the Moon they chose to safely return to Earth, the Apollo 13 astronauts flew farther away from Earth than any other astronauts until the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026, though they had to abort the Moon landing.

Before joining NASA in 1966, Swigert was a civilian test pilot and fighter pilot in the Air National Guard. After leaving NASA, he ran to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate but lost in a primary election against Bill Armstrong. He subsequently was elected to represent Colorado's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, but died of cancer before being sworn into office.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jack Swigert” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.