Young, John Watts (1930–)
Veteran American astronaut who flew on Gemini
3 and 10, orbited the Moon on Apollo
10, walked on the Moon on Apollo 16, and
commanded two Space Shuttle missions,
STS-1 and STS-9. Born in San Francisco, Young received a B.S. in aeronautical
engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 before joined the
Navy. He served on a destroyer for a year, then took flight training and
was assigned to Fighter Squadron 103 for four years, flying Cougars and
Crusaders. After training at the Navy Test Pilot School in 1959, he was
assigned to the Naval Air Test Center for three years, setting time-to-climb
records in a Phantom jet. He was later maintenance officer of Phantom Fighter
Squadron 103 and retired from the Navy as a captain in 1976. Young was selected
as an astronaut in 1962 and flew with Grissom
on the first manned Gemini mission, Gemini 3, in 1965. During five hours
in orbit, they accomplished several firsts for a manned spacecraft: changing
the orbital path, operating a computer and lifting reentry. On Gemini 10,
in 1966, Young and Michael Collins
executed a dual rendezvous with two separate Agena
satellites. On Apollo 10, in 1969, Young
operated the Command Module while Thomas Stafford
and Gene Cernan flew the separated lunar
module to within 10 miles of the Moon. Young commanded Apollo 16, in 1972,
with Charlie Duke and Ken Mattingly.
Young and Duke explored the lunar highlands at Descartes, drove a lunar
rover 16 mi. and collected 90 kg of moon rocks. Young's fifth flight was
as commander of the first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, on April 12, 1981,
a 54.5-hour flight during which he and Crippen
thoroughly tested the first reusable winged spacecraft. They guided Columbia
to the first runway landing of a manned spaceship. Young was back in space
aboard Columbia for the STS-9 mission, November 28 to December 8, 1983,
with pilot Brewster Shaw, Bob Parker, Owen Garriott, Byron Lichtenberg and
West German Ulf Merbold. In a Spacelab module in the cargo bay, the crew
conducted science, metals processing and life sciences experiments. In 1973,
Young was named Chief of the Space Shuttle Branch of the Astronaut Office.
The following year, he was selected Chief of the Astronaut Office. He is
currently the Associate Director (Technical) at Johnson Space Center.
Related category
• ASTRONAUTS
AND COSMONAUTS
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