Astronaut John Young dead at 87
Legendary astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and later commanded the first space shuttle flight, has died, NASA said yesterday. Young was 87.
The space agency said Young died Friday night at home in Houston following complications from pneumonia. NASA called Young one of its pioneers — the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon.
Young also became the first person to rocket away from Earth six times. Counting his takeoff from the moon in 1972 as commander of Apollo 16, his blastoff tally stood at seven, for decades a world record.
He flew twice during the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s, twice to the moon during NASA’s Apollo program, and twice more aboard the new space shuttle Columbia in the early 1980s.
His NASA career lasted 42 years, longer than any other astronaut’s, and he was revered among his peers for his dogged dedication to keeping crews safe.
Young was in NASA’s second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with the likes of Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell.
Young orbited the moon on Apollo 10 in May 1969 in preparation for the Apollo 11 moon landing that was to follow in a couple months. He commanded Apollo 16 three years later, the nextto-last manned lunar voyage, and walked on the moon.
He hung on for the space shuttle, commanding Columbia’s successful maiden voyage in 1981 with co-pilot Robert Crippen by his side. It was a risky endeavor: Never before had NASA launched people on a rocket ship that had not first been tested in space.
Young made his final trek into orbit aboard Columbia two years later, again as its skipper.
Young spent his last 17 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in management, focusing on safety issues. He retired at the end of 2004.
Young was born Sept. 24, 1930, and grew up in Orlando, Fla. He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 and went on to join the Navy and serve in Korea as a gunnery officer. He eventually became a Navy fighter pilot and test pilot.
Young received more than 100 major accolades in his lifetime, including the prestigious Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.