Happy birthday, Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise!

Fred Haise, born November 14, 1933 in Biloxi, Mississippi, was an astronaut on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.  After high school, he served in the US Marines as a fighter pilot.  He graduated from the University of  Oklahoma with a degreee in aeronautical engineering in 1959 before becoming an astronaut.

Haise was scheduled to be the sixth human to walk on the moon during the Apollo 13 mission behind Jim Lovell, who was to be the fifth.  Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot.  Of course, we all know they didn't get to land on the moon but they returned to Earth safely.  Bill Paxton played Haise in the movie Apollo 13.

He was backup for the Apollo 16 mission and was slated for the Apollo 19 mission, but the latter was cancelled due to budget cuts.  Haise left NASA in 1979.

Happy birthday, Skylab 4 astronaut Gerald Carr!

Gerald Paul Carr, born August 22, 1932 in Denver, Colorado, is one of three rookie astronauts on Skylab 4, the third and last manned mission to the space station.  He was one of the original 19 astronauts chosen by NASA in 1966.  For over 4 years, Carr and his fellow Skylab 4 astronauts held the record for the longest stay in space, 184 days.

During the mission, the Skylab astronauts got worn out from their hectic work schedule and finally ceased radio transmissions to and from Mission Control for a day.  NASA was furious, of course, but it did lead to some revising of work schedules and the astronauts ended up completing more work that originally planned.

Carr was on the rotation for Apollo 19 but the mission was cancelled in 1970.