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From Gemini to Shuttle: John Young Retires



 
 
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Old December 7th 04, 05:52 PM
Jacques van Oene
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Default From Gemini to Shuttle: John Young Retires

From Gemini to Shuttle: John Young Retires

12.07.04


After four decades and half a dozen space flights -- including a moonwalk
and the first Shuttle mission -- veteran NASA astronaut John Young is
hanging up his flight suit. So, how did this amazing career of exploration
get off the ground?

Forty-three years ago, Young -- then a Navy test pilot -- tuned in on a
small, black-and-white television at the Naval Air Test Center in Florida as
President John Kennedy addressed the nation.

After hearing the president's bold proposal to land a man on the Moon and
return him safely to Earth, Young knew what he had to do.

"I thought returning safely to Earth sounded like a good idea," quips Young,
who has stood on the Moon, driven 16 miles in a lunar rover and spent three
nights on the lunar surface. He is the only person to go into space as part
of the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs and was the first to fly
into space six times -- seven times counting his lunar liftoff.

Quite a resume. But the way the retiring astronaut describes the
extraordinary achievements of his four decade career, he was merely doing
his job.

Young's impressive career at NASA began in 1962 when he was selected from
among hundreds of young pilots to join NASA's second astronaut class, known
as the "New Nine."

"We were just thinking about doing the job right." -- John Young, on
preparing for his first flight, Gemini 3 in 1965

Young was born in San Francisco. His family moved to Georgia, and then
Florida where he lived most of his childhood along with his younger brother.

As a boy, Young's favorite pastimes were building model airplanes -- the
first hint of his passion for aeronautics -- and reading.

"My grandpa taught me how to read," says Young, whose hobby today is still
reading about history and exploration. "I read the encyclopedia when I was
five."

His father, a civil engineer, was Young's role model. Young graduated from
Orlando High School in Flordia and went on to earn a degree in aeronautical
engineering from Georgia Tech, where he graduated with highest honors in
1952.

Following graduation, he joined the Navy and, after a year's service aboard
a destroyer, was sent to flight training.

He flew fighter planes for four years, then completed test pilot training
and served three years at the Navy's Air Test Center, where he heeded the
president's call to go to the Moon.

In March 1965, Young made his first flight as an astronaut, joining Gus
Grissom on Gemini 3, the first manned flight of that program. As Young
prepared, obligation overruled excitement or any other emotion.


"We were just thinking about doing the job right," Young said.

Young commanded Gemini 10 in July 1966. He and pilot Mike Collins
rendezvoused with two Agena target vehicles, and Collins did a spacewalk to
retrieve a micrometeorite detector from one of them.

In May of 1969, he served as command module pilot on Apollo 10, and flew all
the way to the Moon with crewmates Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan. The crew
scouted landing sites from lunar orbit and rendezvoused the lunar module and
command module in a full dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 landing two
months later.

Young made a return trip to the Moon as commander of Apollo 16 in April
1972. With Ken Mattingly orbiting above in the command module, Young and
lunar module pilot Charlie Duke landed in the Descartes highlands. "The Moon
is a very nice place," Young said. "When we landed, we were 20 minutes
behind. Because time on the Moon was so precious, what I remember most is
trying to catch up."

Young and Duke set up scientific equipment and explored lunar highlands in
the rover. The mission returned more than 200 pounds of Moon rocks gathered
from three geological outings.


Young's career was full of firsts, none more notable than in April 1981,
when he commanded Space Shuttle Columbia's on its -- and the Shuttle
program's -- maiden flight, STS-1. It was the first time a piloted
spacecraft was tested in space without previous unpiloted orbital flights.
Young and pilot Bob Crippen accomplished more than 130 flight test
objectives during their almost 55-hour mission.

In late 1983 Young commanded STS-9, the first Spacelab mission. During the
10-day flight, the six crewmembers worked around the clock in 12-hour
shifts, involved in more than 70 experiments in a range of scientific
disciplines. The mission returned more scientific and technical data than
all the Apollo and Skylab missions combined.

In addition to his six spaceflights, Young was a member of five backup
crews. He's logged thousands of hours of training and flight time, including
a total of 835 hours in space.

In early 1973, he became chief of the Space Shuttle Branch of the Astronaut
Office at Johnson Space Center. The following year, Young, who retired from
the Navy as a captain in 1976 after 25 years of military service, was named
chief of the Astronaut Office, a post he held until May 1987.


He later served as special assistant to the JSC director, advising on
engineering, operations and safety matters relating to the International
Space Station, Space Shuttle upgrades and advanced human space exploration
programs.

Young became associate director (technical) of the Center in February 1996,
overseeing technical, operational and safety of NASA programs assigned to
JSC.

Throughout this time, Young has remained an active astronaut, eligible to
command Space Shuttle missions.

Young has six honorary doctorate degrees and more than 80 awards, including
three NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Outstanding Leadership
Medal, two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, and three Navy Distinguished
Flying Crosses. In 1988, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of
Fame.


The legacy he leaves behind exemplifies a commitment to space exploration
for humanity in its truest form. His dedication thrives on his belief in the
space program.

"I've been very lucky, I think," Young says. As to which moment was most
memorable, he says simply, "I liked them all."




--
--------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info


 




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