In article rs.com,
mike flugennock wrote:
...I know a lot of that was PR, but I'm trying to
remember if he was still "officially active" when the decision on the
Glenn flight was made...

I don't remember the exact dates, but yes, Young's official retirement was
well after Glenn's junket, and I think Young was still nominally on flight
status right to the end.

I mean, if they'd really wanted to study the older, retired early
astronauts, couldn't they have just as easily flown a guy who first flew
in Gemini, commanded the first STS flight, and who was supposedly still
"getting his hours in"?

Yep. Or they could have refrained from forcibly retiring Story Musgrave,
who *was* still "getting his hours in" until shortly before that -- six
flights done and ready for a seventh -- and was an MD to boot. (He was
only a few years younger than Young, having been one of the "Excess 11"
second batch of Apollo scientist-astronauts.)

...instead of making him ride in "coach", like Glenn, and as
a Payload Specialist (or, as I called Glenn during that flight, simply
"Payload").

I was still doing my Aviation Leak summaries at the time, and made a point
of listing Glenn as a payload.
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