He later orbited the moon, but in 1970 he was bumped from the Apollo flight after being exposed to measles. Then, from mission control, he helped it avert disaster.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission did what it set out to do, but its lander and rover could not be roused after entering the cold lunar darkness two weeks ago.
The telescope will help astronomers study some of the most energetic places in the cosmos, while the lunar mission will aid the development of pinpoint moon landing technologies.