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Biography
John Young - A Short Biography
by Lindsey McFadyen
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As we look back on the achievements of Apollo 16, it is perhaps
also timely to take a brief peek at the career of mission commander John
Young.
John Watts Young was born on 24th September 1930 in San Francisco
but grew up, (perhaps prophetically) in Orlando, Florida, where his family
had relocated. In 1952 he graduated from the Georgia Institute of
Technology where he had gained a BSc with highest honours in Aeronautical
Engineering. Joining the US Navy upon graduation and after a year
on the destroyer USS Laws, he was sent for flight training and spent the
next 6 years flying Cougars and Crusaders. In 1959 he entered test
flight training and his duties included evaluations of the Crusader and
Phantom weapons systems for the Navy. In 1962 he not only set world
time-to-climb records to 3,000 and 25,000 metre altitudes in Project High
Jump but was also selected as a member of the second astronaut group.
In 1965, the first of the "New Nine" to be chosen for a mission,
he made his first space flight as pilot on board Gemini 3. The first
person to operate a computer on a manned spaceflight, (and smuggle a corned
beef sandwich into space!) he took to the job like a veteran, never suffering
from space sickness and always showing a certain reluctance to return to
the confines of Earth. His second Gemini mission in 1966 saw him
as commander of Gemini 10, completing a dual rendezvous with two separate
Agena target vehicles. He also served as backup pilot for Gemini
6.
He flew his first Apollo mission in 1969 as Command Module pilot
on board Apollo 10, during which the dress rehearsal for the first moon
landing was successfully staged. As backup commander of the ill fated
Apollo 13, he was involved in running night simulations that aided in the
prime crew's safe return to earth. This was followed by command of
Apollo 16, during which he and Charlie Duke became 9th and 10th men,
respectively, to walk on the moon's surface. Having excelled in the
geological training that the crew had been given, Young was in his element
on the lunar surface.
Driving 16 miles in the Rover and at one point staging an impromptu
"grand prix" in the vehicle, the pair collected over 200 lbs of lunar rock
for examination back on earth. He also served as backup Command Module
pilot for the second missions before the fire on board Apollo 1, the same
for Apollo 7 and a backup commander of Apollo 17.
It was while on the lunar surface that he was the eager recipient
of the news that NASA was to go ahead with the planned Space Shuttle programme,
and in 1981 he became the first commander to take a reusable space vehicle
into orbit and return it safely to earth. His second Shuttle flight
came in 1983 as command of STS-9, the first Spacelab mission.
The first US astronaut to make 6 journeys into space and still working
for NASA, he displays not only a continuing commitment to all aspects of
the space programme but an impressive ability to move with the times.
Nowadays, as we accept spaceflight as everyday reality, the man that scientist
Lee Silver called "the archetypical extraterrestrial" remains a continuing
link to those early days of spaceflight.
His enthusiam still burns bright that man will once again travel
beyond the confines of Earth orbit, and when that finally happens I hope
that he will be involved in it in some way.
Old astronauts never die, they just put the countdown on hold.
Long may John Young's countdown remain firmly on hold!
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