John Young

American astronaut

• Born: September 24, 1930
• Birthplace: San Francisco, California
• Died: January 5, 2018
• Place of death: Houston, Texas

Also known as: John Watts Young; John W. Young

Education: Georgia Institute of Technology

Significance: John Young was the ninth person to walk on the moon. He commanded the first US space shuttle mission and later advocated for increased attention to safety in the space program.

Background

John Young was born in San Francisco, California, but he and his younger brother grew up in Georgia and Florida. He loved to build model airplanes and was an avid reader. His father, a civil engineer, strongly influenced Young as a child. After graduating from Orlando High School, Young attended Georgia Tech. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1952, graduating with highest honors.

He next joined the US Navy. During the Korean War, Young served a year on a destroyer, the USS LAWS. After this, he was selected for flight training. He flew fighter planes for four years and served as a test pilot for three years at the US Navy’s Air Test Center. He set world time-to-climb records flying Phantom fighter jets. He earned numerous awards and medals, including two Navy Distinguished Service Medals and three Navy Distinguished Flying Crosses.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his intention to send American astronauts to the moon and return them safely to Earth. Young was inspired by the notion and decided that he wanted to be part of the space program.

Life’s Work

Young began training for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1962. He underwent rigorous training to become an astronaut.

On March 23, 1965, Young went into space for the first time with Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission. During its first orbit, the craft reached a maximum altitude of 139 miles (224 km). After four hours and fifty-three minutes in orbit, the Gemini vessel landed in the South Atlantic Ocean. Young used his experience as a test pilot to evaluate the new spacecraft. He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal from President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Young returned to space with astronaut Michael Collins on the Gemini 10 mission on July 18, 1966. Gemini 10 docked with an Agena Target Vehicle; its rockets boosted their altitude to 475 miles (764 km). Young piloted the craft near another Agena for a second docking mission as Collins collected a micro meteorite detector from the second Agena.

With astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan, Young left on the Apollo 10 mission on May 18, 1969. Apollo 10 orbited the moon as a preflight test and lunar mapping mission for the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11. Young controlled the command module Charlie Brown to complete the first moon-orbiting docking with the lunar module, Snoopy.

In April 1972, Young commanded the Apollo 16 mission. This spaceflight, with Charles M. Duke Jr. and Thomas K. Mattingly, was the fifth manned lunar landing and Young’s opportunity to set foot on the moon. Young explored the terrain with Duke as they set up scientific equipment. They drove a lunar rover to collect moon rock for testing to try to learn about the history of the moon.

Although he retired from the US Navy in 1976 with the rank of captain, Young remained with NASA. He was eventually named the chief of the astronaut office. He returned to space on April 12, 1981, as the commander of the first space shuttle mission. He and pilot Robert L. Crippen orbited Earth thirty-six times aboard the Columbia before Young landed the craft at Edwards Air Force Base in California on April 14. He flew aboard Columbia again in 1983 as commander of the joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) mission, STS-9, to deliver the scientific module Spacelab to space. The ten-day mission, which began November 28, included more than seventy experiments.

From 1987 to 2004, Young continued to work with the US space agency in various management capacities related to the space shuttle program and safety. He served as special assistant to the director of the Johnson Space Center for Engineering, Operations, and Safety from 1987 to 1996. He next served as technical associate director of all space agency programs at Johnson Space Center. He retired in 2004, but continued to support development of systems that would allow humans to live in space for extended times. He also supported the development of alternative fuel sources to reduce the impact of fossil fuels on the planet.

During his career with the space program, Young was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor (1981), four NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement (1987), the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1992), and the NASA Outstanding Achievement Medal (1994). He also received numerous other awards, including the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award (1993), and he was inducted into six astronaut and aviation halls of fame.

Young experienced complications from pneumonia and died on January 5, 2018. He was eighty-seven years old.

Impact

Young was NASA’s longest-serving astronaut. He was the first person to fly in space from Earth six times, and he operated the first computer used in a manned spacecraft. He was the ninth person to walk on the moon, and the first person to fly six space missions.

Young is notable for his role with the space shuttle program. He served as spacecraft commander of STS-1, the first space shuttle flight, in 1981. This mission served to test all of the components of space shuttle systems as they orbited Earth for more than fifty-four hours. The crew also completed 133 flight test objectives during ascent, orbit, and entry.

Long after his career as an astronaut ended, Young remained an important part of the space exploration team. His leadership role included overseeing joint American-Russian missions and oversight of safety issues regarding space shuttles, the space station, and other programs. After the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, and its seven-person crew, in 1986, Young wrote many influential internal NASA documents about safety issues he had previously raised.

Personal Life

Young married Susy Feldman of Saint Louis, Missouri. The couple had two children and three grandchildren.

Bibliography

Beutel, Allard. “NASA Remembers Agency’s Most Experienced Astronaut.” NASA, 6 Jan. 2018, www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-remembers-agency-s-most-experienced-astronaut. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Dunbar, Brian. “NASA Mourns the Passing of Astronaut John Young.” NASA, 9 Jan. 2018, www.nasa.gov/astronautprofiles/young. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Howell, Elizabeth. “John Young: The Prolific Astronaut.” Space.com, 8 Jan. 2018, www.space.com/20690-john-young-astronaut-biography.html. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

“John W. Young (Captain, USN Ret.) NASA Astronaut (Former).” Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Aug. 2010, www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/young.html. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Reinert, Patty. “Conversation with John Young.” Houston Chronicle, 17 Dec. 2004, www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Conversation-With-John-Young-1563092.php. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Ryba, Jeanne. “STS-9.” NASA, 18 Feb. 2010, www.nasa.gov/mission‗pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-9.html. Accessed 9 Sept. 2018.

Young, John W. Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space. UP of Florida, 2012.