- John Young (astronaut)
Infobox Astronaut
name = John Watts Young
type =NASA Astronaut
nationality = American
status = "Retired"
date_birth = birth date and age|1930|09|24
place_birth =San Francisco ,California
occupation = Test Pilot
rank =Captain ,USN
selection = 1962 NASA Group
time = 34d 19h 39m
mission =Gemini 3 ,Gemini 10 ,Apollo 10 ,Apollo 16 ,STS-1 ,STS-9
insignia =John Watts Young (born
September 24 ,1930 ) is a formerNASA astronaut who walked on theMoon onApril 21 ,1972 during theApollo 16 mission.Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He twice journeyed to the Moon, was the first person to fly into space six times, and as of 2008, is the only person to have piloted in space four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini spacecraft,
Apollo Command/Service Module ,Apollo Lunar Module , and Space Shuttle.Early life and Navy career
Born in
San Francisco, California and raised in the College Park neighborhood ofOrlando, Florida , Young became a member of theSigma Chi Fraternity and earned abachelor of science degree inaeronautical engineering with highest honors fromGeorgia Institute of Technology in 1952.After graduation Young entered the
United States Navy . He served as Fire Control Officer on the destroyer, USS|Laws|DD-558 until June 1953 and completed a tour in the Korean Seas. He then became a fighter pilot, and in 1959, a test pilot.NASA career
Project Gemini
Joining
NASA in 1962, Young was the first ofAstronaut Group 2 to fly in space. (He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot ofGemini 3 whenAlan Shepard , the original commander, was grounded.) Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft withVirgil Grissom , Young scored another space "first" by smuggling acorned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft - a feat for which he was reprimanded. [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/GT03_TEC.PDF]Young then trained as backup pilot for
Gemini 6 , but after the sandwich episode, for a time it seemed that NASA did not know what to do with Young. Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to Apollo, while other astronauts such asScott Carpenter andGordon Cooper had been sidelined for lesser infractions. The assignment ofEd White , theGemini 7 backup commander to Apollo created an opening for Young as Commander ofGemini 10 . The mission performed the first dual rendezvous with two Agena Target Vehicles, and his pilot, Michael Collins, performed two spacewalks.Project Apollo
Young was assigned to the backup crew on
Apollo 7 and later made the second manned flight to the Moon onApollo 10 with Thomas Stafford andEugene Cernan . While Stafford and Cernan flew thelunar module in lunar orbit for the first time, Young flew the command module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit. Young was backup commander ofApollo 13 , the troubled mission in which the moon landing was aborted because of an explosion on the service module. Young had a central role in rescuing theApollo 13 crew by participating in the team that developed procedures to stretch the LM consumables and reactivate the command module systems prior to re-entry.By rotation, Young became commander of
Apollo 16 . Young became an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the moon mission. Apollo 16's lunar landing was almost aborted at the last moment when a malfunction was detected on the command module. On the surface, Young trod theDescartes Highlands withCharles Duke (making Young the ninth person to walk upon the surface of the moon), whileKen Mattingly flew the command module in lunar orbit. Young set a speed record with the lunar rover but was troubled by the effects of potassium in the orange juice they drank during the moonwalks. He carried with him the badge and flag of theSigma Chi Fraternity; these are on display at Sigma Chi's headquarters inEvanston, Illinois .His final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander on
Apollo 17 . This almost resulted in his second moon landing when Gene Cernan (Eugene Cernan ) injured his knee playing softball a few months before the flight. The injury, had it been any more severe, would have resulted in Cernan being medically dropped from the flight and John Young commanding the last two moon landings of Apollo (as a note, fellow Group 2 astronautPete Conrad would have done the same if he would have commanded the cancelledApollo 20 mission, but as he already flew as commander ofApollo 12 , he would have been transferred to eitherSkylab or theSpace Shuttle andApollo 14 CMPStuart Roosa would have flown on Apollo 20 as commander).pace Shuttle
After the Apollo program ended, Young stayed on as an astronaut and flew two missions of the
Space Shuttle , including commanding the Shuttle's maiden flight,STS-1 , and the flightSTS-9 which usedSpacelab for the first time. Young had been in line to make a record seventh flight to deploy theHubble Space Telescope , but theChallenger Disaster thwarted NASA's schedule.Young was openly critical of the administration following the disaster, and in April 1987 was taken out of the Astronaut Office and made special assistant of engineering, operations and safety to the center director
Aaron Cohen . It was denied that his criticism of NASA triggered the move.Retirement from NASA
Young worked for NASA for 42 years and announced his retirement on
December 7 ,2004 . Heretired onDecember 31 ,2004 at the age of 74.Young still attends the Monday Morning Meeting in the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center.Fuglesang, Christer, "Tretton dygn i rymden efter fjorton år på jorden", Albert Bonniers Förlag, Sverige, 200710 (9789185555154).]
Media portrayals and description
In the 1995 film "Apollo 13" Young was played by
Ben Marley . In the 1998 TV miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" he was played byJohn Posey .Young is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary and book "
In the Shadow of the Moon ", and the Discovery seriesWhen We Left Earth .In his book Moondust, Andrew Smith reports on an interview with Young. He describes him as having several autistic like traits, such as addressing the wall behind Smith [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/apr/24/biography.features Observer review: Moondust by Andrew Smith | Books | The Observer ] ] , talking at length about technical matters and asteroid impacts, and misunderstanding questions about his own feelings. Smith laments that an individual like Young, who has become a favourite of many Apollo fans, might have trouble making it in today's more superficial world of brand identities. [cite book
last = Smith
first = Andrew
authorlink = Andrew Smith (author)
coauthors =
title = Moondust
publisher = Bloomsbury
date = 2005
location =
pages = 212-227
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0-7475-6369-1]Awards and honors
He was awarded the
Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.He was awarded the National Space Trophy in 2000.
John Young Parkway , a major highway inCentral Florida , was named for him.He is a member of the
Sigma Chi fraternity, theTau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, and theSigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society. He is also a member of the Georgia Tech ANAK society (considered the highest distinction a student can receive).References
External links
* [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/young.html NASA biography of John Young]
* [http://space.balettie.com/Young.html The Big Picture: Ways to Mitigate or Prevent Very Bad Planet Earth Events] Essay by John Young
* [http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2951406 Conversation With John Young] "Houston Chronicle" (December 17, 2004)
* [http://www.spaceflighthistory.com/geminiprogram.htm#young U.S. Spaceflight History biography- John Young]s-ttl|title=
Chief of the Astronaut Office
years=1974–1987
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