# Astronaut Ken Mattingly passed away on {2023-10-31}; + some Apollo moon stats

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/astronaut-ken-mattingly-passed-away-on-2023-10-31-some-apollo-moon-stats/992828>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 8, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/astronaut-ken-mattingly-passed-away-on-2023-10-31-some-apollo-moon-stats/992828 "2023-11-08T15:04:46Z")\
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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/astronaut-ken-mattingly-passed-away-on-2023-10-31-some-apollo-moon-stats/992828/3 "2023-11-08T15:56:08Z")

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This dates from 2012:

> **[65 Years](https://xkcd.com/893/)**
>
> The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

And is surprisingly accurate. Right now the survivorship is running towards the high end of the 95th percentile; The lunar walkers are lasting 3-4 years longer than expected. The 5 to 4 survivor transition was expected in ~2019. We “should” be down to about 2-1/2 by now. Although that’s base on actuarial tables for mere mortals, not folks who once passed an astronaut physical and have had lifetime medical care.

I don’t know anything about how well Aldrin, Scott, Duke or Schmitt are doing here in 2023. We might be about to catch up to the trendline. Sadly.

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