John Watts Young (September 24, 1930 – January 5, 2018) was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

Before becoming an astronaut, Young received his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and joined the U.S. Navy. After serving at sea during the Korean War he became a naval aviator and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. As a test pilot, he set several world time-to-climb records. Young retired from the Navy in 1976 with the rank of captain.

In 1962, Young was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 2. He flew on the first crewed Gemini mission (Gemini 3) in 1965, and then commanded the 1966 Gemini 10 mission. In 1969, he flew as command module pilot on Apollo 10, and became the first person to orbit the Moon alone. In 1972, he commanded Apollo 16 and spent three days on the lunar surface exploring the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke. Young also commanded STS-1 in 1981, the Space Shuttle program's first launch, and STS-9 in 1983, both of which were on .

Young is the only astronaut to have flown in four different classes of NASA spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo command module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

He was one of only two astronauts, along with Ken Mattingly, his command module pilot during the Apollo 16 mission, to fly on both an Apollo mission and a Space Shuttle mission, and the only astronaut to walk on the Moon and fly on the Space Shuttle. Young served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, and retired from NASA in 2004, after 42 years of service.

Early years and education

John Watts Young was born at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California, on September 24, 1930, to William Hugh Young, a civil engineer, and Wanda Young (). Tau Beta Pi, In 1962, Young was assigned to fly with Fighter Squadron 143 (VF-143) until his selection as an astronaut in September 1962.

NASA career

In September 1962, Young was selected to join NASA Astronaut Group 2. The Gemini 3 backup commander was Wally Schirra, with Stafford as the backup pilot. The primary mission of Gemini 3 was to test the ability of the spacecraft to perform orbital maneuvers throughout the flight. Biological experiments were assigned to test the effects of radiation on human blood and microgravity on cell division, and an experiment to test reentry communications was created. Both crews initially trained in simulators at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved their training when the simulators were set up at the Manned Spacecraft Center and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in October 1964. Both primary and backup crews participated in Gemini 3's capsule system tests before it left the McDonnell facility. Young advocated for a longer mission than the planned three orbits, but his suggestion was rejected. Twenty minutes into flight, Young recognized multiple anomalous system readings and determined that there might be issues with the instrument power supply. He switched from the primary power supply to the backup, which solved the issue. Young successfully completed the radiation experiment on human blood, but Grissom accidentally broke a handle and was unable to complete his assigned experiment on cell division. Gemini 3 successfully conducted its orbital maneuver tests that allowed it to circularize its orbit, change its orbital plane, and lower its perigee to . On the third orbit, Young fired the retrorockets to begin re-entry. The lift the capsule experienced during reentry was less than predicted, and Gemini 3 landed short of its target area. After the parachutes deployed, the crew shifted the capsule to its landing orientation, which caused both of them to be thrown forward into the windshield and damaged the faceplates on their helmets. The crew remained inside the capsule for 30 minutes as they waited for a helicopter to retrieve them, and they and the capsule were successfully recovered aboard .

On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 launched at 11:49 a.m. After the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn, Young successfully docked the command module with the lunar module.

On March 3, 1971, Young was assigned as the commander of Apollo 16, along with Duke and Mattingly. The mission's science objective was to study material from the lunar highlands, as they were believed to contain volcanic material older than the lunar mare that had been the sites of the previous Apollo landings. To prepare for their EVAs, Young and Duke participated in field exercises in geological research. They conducted field work at the Mono craters in California to learn how to identify lava domes and tuff and the Sudbury Basin to study breccia.

Apollo 16 successfully launched at 12:54 p.m. on April 16, 1972. After the spacecraft reached Earth orbit, several problems developed with the S-IVB attitude control system, but Apollo 16 was still able to perform its trans-lunar injection burn. Mattingly docked the command module with the lunar module, and the crew decided to perform an early checkout of the lunar module over concerns that it had been damaged but found no issues. Apollo 16 flew behind the Moon 74 hours into the mission and entered into a elliptical orbit. The next day, Duke and Young entered the lunar module and undocked, but Mattingly soon reported an issue with the thrust vector controls on the service propulsion system, which would have prevented the command module from maneuvering in case the lunar module was unable to complete its rendezvous. After a delay, Mission Control approved the landing, and Young and Duke began their descent 5 hours and 42 minutes later than scheduled. As the lunar module descended, its projected landing location was north and west of its target location. Young took corrective action to adjust their landing location, and the lunar module landed north and west of its target location. The two astronauts set up the lunar rover, and deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). Young tripped over the cables to the heat flow sensors, which irreparably broke the sensors' communication link with Earth. and began a traverse to Flag crater, which was west of the landing site. They set up a geology station at the crater, and collected Big Muley, a breccia that was the largest lunar rock collected during the Apollo program. Young and Duke traveled back towards the lunar module, stopping at Spook and Buster craters along the way. Before ending the EVA, they tested the maneuverability of the lunar rover. They finished the EVA after seven hours on the lunar surface. After they traveled to collect samples at the nearby Wreck crater, the rover's navigation system failed, forcing the two astronauts to manually navigate back to the lunar module.

On April 24, the lunar module successfully ascended into lunar orbit and docked with the command module. After the mission, Young was assigned as the Apollo 17 backup commander, along with Duke as the backup lunar module pilot and Stuart A. Roosa as the backup command module pilot. The backup crew was originally the Apollo 15 crew, but were removed after NASA management learned of their plan to sell the unauthorized postal covers they took to the lunar surface. Their backup crew, Joe H. Engle and Richard H. Truly, was the primary crew for STS-2. The first stage of the launch flew higher than anticipated, and the solid rocket boosters separated approximately higher than the original plan. The rest of the launch went as expected, and STS-1 successfully entered Earth orbit. The crew inspected their thermal tiles and determined that some had been lost during launch. Amid concerns that the underside of Columbia might have also lost some thermal shielding, a KH-11 KENNEN satellite was used to image the orbiter and it was determined that the orbiter could safely reenter the atmosphere. It carried the first Spacelab module into orbit, and the crew had to conduct a shift-based schedule to maximize on-orbit research in astronomy, atmospheric and space physics, and life sciences. Young tested a new portable onboard computer, and attempted to photograph Soviet airfields as Columbia orbited overhead. Young had been scheduled to fly as the commander of STS-61-J to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the mission was canceled as a result of the Challenger disaster.

In May 1987, Young was replaced as the chief of the Astronaut Office by Daniel C. Brandenstein and was reassigned as Special Assistant to Johnson Space Center Director Aaron Cohen for Engineering, Operations and Safety. Young believed that his reassignment was the result of his public criticism of NASA management. In November 2011, Young and Crippen met with the crew of STS-135, the last Space Shuttle mission.

In 2012, Young and James R. Hansen co-authored his autobiography, Forever Young. Together they had two children, Sandra and John, and two grandchildren. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on April 30, 2019. He was remembered by NASA as the man who "walked on the Moon during Apollo 16 and commanded the first space shuttle mission."

Awards and honors

While he served in the Navy, Young was awarded the Navy Astronaut Wings, Navy Distinguished Service Medal with a 5/16 inch star, and the Distinguished Flying Cross with two stars. During both his military and civilian career with NASA, he received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1969) with three oak leaf clusters, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal.

In 1981, NASA and the developers of the Space Shuttle won the Collier Trophy, and the crews of STS-1 and STS-2 received special recognition. Young was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982, along with nine other Gemini astronauts. In 1988 Young was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Young, along with the other Gemini astronauts, was inducted into the second U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame class in 1993. In 1995, he was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. In 2001, Young was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.

Young was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1993. In 2010, he was awarded the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award He received the Exceptional Engineering Achievement Award in 1985, and the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award in 1993. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Astronautical Society (AAS), and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP). The planetarium at the Orlando Science Center was named in his honor.

Northrop Grumman announced in 2018 that the Cygnus spacecraft for Cygnus NG-10, their tenth cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, would be named S.S. John Young. Cygnus NG-10 successfully launched on November 17, 2018, and concluded its mission on February 25, 2019.

Asteroid 5362 Johnyoung was named after Young.

See also

  • List of spaceflight records

References

  • Interview with John W. Young for the NOVA episode "To the Moon"; WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998