Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Astronaut John Young dead at 87

Tig

Tig

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Young flew twice to the Moon, walked on its surface and flew the first Space Shuttle mission. He went to space six times in the Gemini, Apollo & Space Shuttle programs. He was one of the best pilots in the astronaut corps.

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One of my personal heroes is astronaut Micheal Collins, the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 11 who stayed in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin made the first footsteps on the moon...

Collins was in the right seat of Gemini 10 before that...the Mission Commander of Gemini 10 was John Young...

R.I.P. Commander...:(
 
jelloman said:
One of my personal heroes is astronaut Micheal Collins, the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 11 who stayed in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin made the first footsteps on the moon...

Collins was in the right seat of Gemini 10 before that...the Mission Commander of Gemini 10 was John Young...

R.I.P. Commander...:(
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I've got Collin's biography sitting in my hand luggage for my flight home from Vegas as we speak. Until I read Armstrong's it hadn't even dawned on me that there was a 3rd guy in the Apollo 11 mission and I've been fascinated by his story ever since.

In fact I used that as a question in a local pub quiz I covered for a pal a few weeks ago: Who was the 3rd person on the Apollo 11 mission who never made it to the moon and was technically the most isolated man in history during the landing? No one got it :cry:
 
jbj said:
I've got Collin's biography sitting in my hand luggage for my flight home from Vegas as we speak. Until I read Armstrong's it hadn't even dawned on me that there was a 3rd guy in the Apollo 11 mission and I've been fascinated by his story ever since.

In fact I used that as a question in a local pub quiz I covered for a pal a few weeks ago: Who was the 3rd person on the Apollo 11 mission who never made it to the moon and was technically the most isolated man in history during the landing? No one got it :cry:
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I would have...

I read his book Carrying The Fire when I was a kid...it was way above my reading level at the time but it became one of my favorite books...been a space cadet ever since...
 
Sad to hear news like this but they're not getting any younger. Godspeed, sir.

I've got several of their press photos in my office, but not of John Young.
This one's my favorite.
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A little inside story about STS-1 I heard a long time ago from a NASA vet:
While sitting on the launchpad and during ascent in the first orbital shuttle mission, Young's heart rate was somewhat low. He was a cool as an astronaut gets. Meanwhile, Crippen's heat rate was damn near maxed out! However, during re-entry and landing, Crippen's heart rate was fairly low while Young's was thumping pretty hard.

Those who have read Mike Mulane's Riding Rockets learned that Young was a hard nosed tyrant when he was the chief of the astronaut office during the early Shuttle era. Between him and George Abbey, morale was pretty low in the corps. That said, he was well respected for his many accomplishments. He logged more than 15,275 hours flying time in props, jets, helicopters, and rocket jets, plus more than 9,200 hours in T-38s, and 835 hours in spacecraft during six space flights.
 
Tig said:
A little inside story about STS-1 I heard a long time ago from a NASA vet:
While sitting on the launchpad and during ascent in the first orbital shuttle mission, Young's heart rate was somewhat low. He was a cool as an astronaut gets. Meanwhile, Crippen's heat rate was damn near maxed out! However, during re-entry and landing, Crippen's heart rate was fairly low while Young's was thumping pretty hard.

Those who have read Mike Mulane's Riding Rockets learned that Young was a hard nosed tyrant when he was the chief of the astronaut office during the early Shuttle era. Between him and George Abbey, morale was pretty low in the corps. That said, he was well respected for his many accomplishments. He logged more than 15,275 hours flying time in props, jets, helicopters, and rocket jets, plus more than 9,200 hours in T-38s, and 835 hours in spacecraft during six space flights.
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I have an autographed copy of Andrew Chaiken's A Man in the Moon. He was a guest speaker an astronomy day event at Boston's museum of science. At the book signing, he also remarked that John Young was a beast because of how hard he had it in the early days. He said that after Alan Shepherd had to stop flying, Al became the boss in the astronaut corps. By all accounts he was a hard ass too. Andrew said that flying in those days was far more competitive because everyone was not immediately replaceable.

Rest in peace Commander. As a boy, I watched and wondered. And on my 21st bday, you and your colleagues gave one hell of a candle.

 
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Tig said:
A little inside story about STS-1 I heard a long time ago from a NASA vet:
While sitting on the launchpad and during ascent in the first orbital shuttle mission, Young's heart rate was somewhat low. He was a cool as an astronaut gets. Meanwhile, Crippen's heat rate was damn near maxed out! However, during re-entry and landing, Crippen's heart rate was fairly low while Young's was thumping pretty hard.
Click to expand...
When you see video of Young stepping out of the orbiter on the runway, you can see he's still fired up. He stepped down and immediately walked the entire length of Columbia, looking at everything. He was definitely pumped.
 
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