Legendary US astronaut John Young dies at 87
WASHINGTON: John Young, a legendary US astronaut who went into space six times, orbited the moon and then walked on its craggy surface, has died, Nasa announced.
He was 87 and died late Friday of complications from pneumonia, the space agency said on Saturday. He lived in a Houston suburb just minutes from the Nasa Space Center.
“Nasa and the world have lost a pioneer,” agency administrator Robert Lightfoot said.
“We will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier.”
Young was a man of many firsts: the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programmes (and the first to command a shuttle flight); and the first to fly into space six times.
He once held the world record for total time spent in space, Nasa said.
Young joined Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission, then commanded the first space shuttle mission in what some people called “the boldest test flight in history”.
He commanded Gemini 10, the first mission to rendezvous with two other spacecraft during a single flight.
Young orbited the moon in Apollo 10, and made a lunar landing with Apollo 16.
“In an iconic display of test pilot ‘cool’, he landed the space shuttle (STS-9) with a fire in the back end,” Nasa said.
“He was in every way the ‘astronaut’s astronaut,’” Lightfoot said.
Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden called Young and astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson the two best pilots he had ever known. “Never met two people like them,” he said. “Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane. They’re just awesome.” — AFP