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Astronauts

John Young

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
January 6, 2018
John Young

NASA Remembers John Young, The Agency’s Most Experienced Astronaut
“The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on the passing of John Young, who died Friday night following complications from pneumonia at the age of 87. Young is the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times: “Today, NASA and the world have lost a pioneer. Astronaut John Young’s storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight; we will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

17 responses to “John Young”

  1. sunman42 says:
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    A real astronaut.

    https://gizmodo.com/50-year

  2. Bob Mahoney says:
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    I had the privilige of participating (as an instructor) in a few pilot pool simulator training sessions wherein Cdr Young was the instructor pilot. Twas a tad intimidating to be sitting across the table (during the prebrief) from someone who had been an astronaut longer than I had been alive but he was great. He just oozed experience (his anecdotes were priceless) and his laconic sense of humor is something I’ll hang on to until I’m gone too.

    Our nation has lost one of its treasures.

  3. Bulldog says:
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    Heartbreaking news. Godspeed Capt. Young.

  4. Shaw_Bob says:
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    Another sad loss of a great astronaut.

  5. ThomasLMatula says:
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    So sad. He was the astronaut’s astronaut. Condolences to his family.

  6. PsiSquared says:
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    Young defined what it meant to have the right stuff. RIP, John Young.

  7. Steve Durst says:
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    Commander and Moon Worker John W. Young was awarded the
    “Astronaut of the Century” memorial trophy by the International Lunar
    Observatory Association of Hawai’i in 2012 and has served instructively and inspirationally as ILOA DIrector Emeritus since addressing the ILOA Founders Meeting in 2007.

    John cared deeply, thought and spoke profoundly for our Human future, and in his wry, terse comments and prescient, penetrating vision, reminded us that “Single planet species don’t last”, that “The Moon will save us”.

    Ad Astra, John, and brilliantly done — with sympathy and appreciation for Susy / Family,

    Steve Durst
    ILOA / Galaxy Forum
    Space Age Publishing Company

  8. moon2mars says:
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    I first got to know Captain Young when I was a finalist for astronaut the first time around in 1999 and he was on my interview panel.
    I was wearing my Holter heart monitor the day of my interview and had all these wires sticking out of my suit when I entered the room and he said I see they got you all hooked up today but don’t worry you will do fine.

    Later he asked me several questions about Mars and my 6 months in Antarctica, at one point smiling and saying that I must be crazy for SCUBA diving under a frozen lake down there. I was asked a question about dying and my thoughts on it to which I responded I don’t think too much about it and when I do I don’t worry too much because I believe that when the Boss upstairs wants you then you are going no matter what you are doing be it flying in space or drinking a cup of coffee. After which I heard some laughing and commotion in the room. So I thought that what came out of my mouth wasn’t what I was thinking and I really said something stupid. However, as I looked around the room I noticed that John Young had put down his styrofoam cup of coffee and jumped back away from it with a big smile.

    At the end of my interview I was asked if I had any final comments and I said that it was a real honor to be here in the same room being asked questions by someone who walked on the Moon. I told him that I distinctly remembered the day of the week that Apollo 16 lifted off which was a Sunday and he said I don’t even know that. I replied yes but I do because it inspired me as a kid.

    Finally, that whole week you are fasting for all the medical exams and you are starving. My interview was near the end of the week and most of my medical exams were done so I was told that I could go into the coffee room down the hall. I was stuffing my face with brownies and in walks John Young. My mouth was so full that I couldn’t speak. He said relax you did a real good job in there and good luck in the selection.

    Some years later I helped get him to fly out with several other astronauts in their T-38s to visit our Mars science team at Arizona State Univ. where I was working at the time.

    Godspeed and Requiescat in pace Captain Young!

  9. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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    I had the pleasure of working with Commander Young during the smart buyer design. It was the internal design for Orion so the source board had something to compare Lockheed and Boeing proposals against. He was a straight shooter and didn’t mince words in his turtleneck.”why do we need a toilet in the command module? There will be one in the lander for the trip out and they can use an Apollo bag for the trip home cause they just got to walk on the Moon” at the end of the design he summed up the vehicle pretty succinctly

    “It’s too big, too heavy and cost too much other than that it is a great vehicle.” Now almost 13 years later I wonder what he would say given we are still many years from a crew test flight.
    Godspeed Commander Young.

  10. Michael Spencer says:
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    STS-1.

    Sitting atop an untested rocket- indeed, an entirely untested configuration- required bravery, pure and simple. Young and Crippen did it.

  11. Ben Russell-Gough says:
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    We’ve lost a great man. A troubled man, true, according to some accounts but a great man nonetheless and, in the end, the hero’s hero. The world is poorer for his passing.

    • Keith Vauquelin says:
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      In my life, I have been termed “troubled” sometimes.

      I am sure Captain Young would have colorfully suggested that I tell the critics and pundits to go perform an anatomical impossibility on themselves.

      Bravo, Captain Young. You will be missed.

  12. G Sullivan says:
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    John Young besides being an American hero, as someone said earlier he was the “astronaut’s astronaut”. I actually met him as a very young lad at Cape Canaveral during Gemini. A few years ago we were running a space nuclear thermal propulsion program (SNTP) for DOD. He flew over in a T-38 with another astronaut and spent at least 8 hours with us understanding every detail about the program in Albuquerque . His quick intuition to get down to key points quickly was amazing. We thought we were good, he was better. But he would never gloat, he wanted to be a part of the team. When we drove him back to the flight line. I asked him why he was so interested in our program. He said, “When they flew to the Moon, they could look out one window or another an see the Earth or the Moon. Flying to Mars is a new definition of lonliness.” He always led with a handshake and a smile. I was very fortunate to have known him.

  13. billinpasadena says:
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    ONE OF THE BEST! It was one peak moment in my life to watch the Apollo 16 launch at KSC as an aerospace graduate student.

  14. Bob Mahoney says:
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    Not many folks remember that Cdr Young commanded the first crewed flight of a space tug during Gemini X when he & Mike Collins employed their Agena rendezvous target propulsive stage to effect a rendezvous with the Gemini VIII Agena still in orbit.

    Those were heady days of pushing the space ops envelope.

  15. David_Morrison says:
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    John Young was an amazing person. One of his lesser known interests was in planetary defense. He understood the asteroid impact hazard and wrote many memos noting the vulnerability of our planet to very rare but potentially catastrophic impacts.

  16. tutiger87 says:
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    My Shuttle career was fun because of CAPT Young. His dogged pursuit of contingency abort improvements kept me busy and allowed me to do some very interesting work. I thoroughly enjoyed flying in the simulator with him, listening to the stories he would tell.

    “This is a complex technical matter that I am willing to discuss with anyone at anytime…”

    God bless him!