Richard Gordon
Born: Oct. 5, 1929, Seattle Died: Nov. 6, 2017, San Marcos, California
NASA experience: Gordon was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. He served as backup pilot for the Gemini 8 flight. On Sept. 12, 1966, he served as pilot for the three-day Gemini XI mission, on which rendezvous with an Agena was achieved in less than one orbit. Gordon was subsequently assigned as backup command pilot for Apollo 9. He occupied the command module pilot seat on Apollo 12, Nov. 14-24, 1969. Throughout the 31-hour lunar surface stay, Gordon remained in orbit aboard the command module “Yankee Clipper,” obtaining desired mapping photographs of tentative landing sites for future missions. Gordon completed two space flights, logging a total of 315 hours, 53 minutes in space — 2 hours, 44 minutes of which were spent in EVA. He served as backup spacecraft commander for Apollo 15.
Military experience: Gordon, a Navy Ccaptain, received his wings as a naval aviator in 1953. He then attended All-Weather Flight School and jet transitional training and was assigned to an all-weather fighter squadron at the Naval Air Station at Jacksonville, Florida. In 1957, he attended the Navy’s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, and served as a flight test pilot until 1960. During this tour of duty, he did flight test work on the F8U Crusader, F11F Tigercat, FJ Fury and A4D Skyhawk, and was the first project test pilot for the F4H Phantom II. He served with Fighter Squadron 121 at the Miramar, California, Naval Air Station as a flight instructor in the F4H and participated in the introduction of that aircraft to the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. He was also flight safety officer, assistant operations officer and ground training officer for Fighter Squadron 96 at Miramar. Winner of the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles to New York in May 1961, he established a new speed record of 869.74 miles per hour and a transcontinental speed record of 2 hours, 47 minutes. He logged more that 4,500 hours’ flying time, 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.