John Watts Young

John Watts Young (born September 24, 1930) is a former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon on Apollo 16, April 21, 1972.

Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space six times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2005, is the only astronaut to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft:

Early life and naval career

Born in San Francisco, California and raised in Orlando, Florida, Young earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering with highest honors from Georgia 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 of Astronaut Group 2 to fly in space. (He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot of Gemini 3 when Alan Shepard, the original commander, was grounded.) Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Virgil Grissom, Young scored another space "first" by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft - a feat for which he was reprimanded.

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 as Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper had been sidelined for lesser infractions. The deaths of Charles Bassett and Elliott See the prime crew of Gemini 9 created a hole in the astronaut corps so that Young was confirmed as Commander of Gemini 10. The mission performed the first dual docking to 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 on Apollo 10 with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. While Stafford and Cernan flew the lunar 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 of Apollo 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 the Apollo 13 crew by leading the team that devised the makeshift carbon dioxide filters that kept the astronauts' air supply breathable.

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 the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke (making Young the ninth man to walk upon the surface of the moon), while Ken 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.

His final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander on Apollo 17. This almost resulted in his second moon landing when Gene 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.

Space 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 flight STS-9 which used Spacelab for the first time. Young had been in-line to make a record seventh flight to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the Challenger 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. He retired on December 31, 2004 at the age of 74.

Media portrayals

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 by John Posey.

Awards and honors

He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.

John Young Parkway, a road in the Orlando, Florida area, was named after him.

He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

External links

NASA biography of John Young
The Big Picture: Ways to Mitigate or Prevent Very Bad Planet Earth Events Essay by John Young
Conversation With John Young Houston Chronicle (December 17, 2004)
Website dedicated to John Young

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