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John Young, a Pioneer Who Flew Four Different Spacecraft, Died This Past Friday at the Age of 87

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.

martyb writes:

John Young was an astronaut's astronaut—quiet, reticent, and utterly reliable in space. During his long and incomparable career as an astronaut, he flew three different vehicles into space: the Gemini capsule, the Apollo capsule, and the space shuttle. He died Friday night, at the age of 87, from complications of pneumonia.

With a tenure that spanned 42 years, Young had the longest career of any astronaut. He piloted the first fight of a Gemini spacecraft, alongside commander Gus Grissom, commanded another Gemini mission, then flew two Apollo missions to the Moon, and finally commanded the first and ninth flights of the space shuttle. During Apollo 16, he spent 71 hours on the surface of the Moon, and also flew the lunar module. With his passing, just five living human beings have walked on the Moon: Buzz Aldrin, 87; Alan Bean, 85; Dave Scott, 85; Charlie Duke, 82; and Harrison Schmitt, 82.

Further ReadingThe Greatest Leap, Part 3: The triumph and near-tragedy of the first Moon landing

After earning a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952, Young joined the US Navy. He was not eligible for the initial Mercury class of astronauts in 1959, but he was a member of the next nine selected in 1962, a legendary class that included Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and others who flew many of the Gemini and Apollo missions.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/john-young-a-pioneer-who-flew-three-different-spacecraft-has-died/

Obligatory xkcd.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:42PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:42PM (#620077)

    And it's sadly no big feat to predict that they will all die before anyone else sets foot on another moon or planet.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:57AM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Wednesday January 10 2018, @09:57AM (#620411) Homepage
    In some way I feel sorry for the under 45s. They've not lived in a time when people were going to the moon. At 46, I was tecnically alive for 3 of the Apollo missions, even if I was too young to appreciate them. I'm sure there are a lot of people who will never be able to say they coexisted with what I consider to be one of the most spectacular pinacles of human achievement.

    Sure, there's a lot of amazing stuff happening in the modern age, but for me none of it compares to getting people to the moon - and getting them back safely. Those 24 astronauts (I include those who remained in the command module, it's not fair to punish them for their duty roster) are a very important part of human history.
    --
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