User:JohnYoungHubbard
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{{Infobox Astronaut | name = John Watts Young | image = Astronaut John Young official portrait.jpg | type = NASA Astronaut | nationality = American | status = Retired | date_birth = September 24, 1930 | place_birth = San Francisco, California | occupation = Test Pilot | rank = Captain, USN | selection = 1962 NASA Group | time = 160d 19h 39m | mission = Faith 7, Gemini 3, Gemini 6 ,Gemini 9,Gemini 11 Apollo 8, Apollo 10,Apollo 13,Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Skylab 2 STS-1, STS-9, STS-31, STS-49 ,STS 59, STS 84, STS 101, STS 106
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John Watts Young Hubbard (born May 6, 1933) is a former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon on July 26, 1972 during the Apollo 15 mission.
Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space Eighteen times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2008, is the only person to have piloted 5 different classes of spacecraft:Mercury spacecraft, Gemini spacecraft, Apollo Command/Service Module, Apollo Lunar Module, and Space Shuttle
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[edit] Early life and Navy career
Born in San Francisco, California and raised in Orlando, Florida, Young became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering with highest honors from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952.
After graduation Young entered the United States Navy. He served as Fire Control Officer on the destroyer, USS Laws (DD-558) until June 1953 and completed a tour in the Korean Seas. He then became a fighter pilot, and in 1959, a test pilot.
[edit] NASA career
[edit] Project Mercury
Mercury 9 was the last U.S. Mercury spaceflight manned space mission, launched on May 15, 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule was named Faith 7 and it completed 22 Earth orbits piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper. The Atlas rocket was #130-D, and the Mercury spacecraft was #20.
The flight of Sigma 7 had been so nearly perfect that some at NASA thought America should quit while it was ahead and make MA-8 the last Mercury mission, and not risk the chance of future disaster. They thought NASA had pushed the first-generation Mercury hardware far enough, and taking more chances on another longer mission were not warranted. They thought it was time to move on to the Gemini program.
[edit] Project Gemini
Joining NASA in 1962, Young was the first of Astronaut Group 2 to fly in space. (He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot of Gemini 3 when Alan Shepard, the original commander, was grounded.) Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Virgil Grissom, Young scored another space "first" by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft - a feat for which he was reprimanded.
Young then trained as backup pilot for Gemini 6, but after the sandwich episode, for a time it seemed that NASA did not know what to do with Young. Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to Apollo, while other astronauts such as Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper had been sidelined for lesser infractions. The deaths of Charles Bassett and Elliott See the prime crew of Gemini 9 created a hole in the astronaut corps so that Young was confirmed as Commander of Gemini 11. The mission performed the first dual docking to two Agena Target Vehicles, and his pilot, Michael Collins, performed two spacewalks.
[edit] Project Apollo
Young was assigned to the backup crew on Apollo 8 and later made the second manned flight to the Moon on Apollo 10 with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. While Stafford and Cernan flew the lunar module in lunar orbit for the first time, Young flew the command module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit. Young was backup commander of Apollo 13, the troubled mission in which the moon landing was aborted because of an explosion on the service module. Young had a central role in rescuing the Apollo 13 crew by leading the team that devised the makeshift carbon dioxide filters that kept the astronauts' air supply breathable.
By rotation, Young became commander of Apollo 15. Young became an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the moon mission. Apollo 15's lunar landing was almost aborted at the last moment when a malfunction was detected on the command module. On the surface, Young trod the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke (making Young the ninth man to walk upon the surface of the moon), while Ken Mattingly flew the command module in lunar orbit. Young set a speed record with the lunar rover but was troubled by the effects of potassium in the orange juice they drank during the moonwalks. He carried with him the badge and flag of the Sigma Chi Fraternity; these are on display at Sigma Chi's headquarters in Evanston, Illinois.
His final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander on Apollo 13. This almost resulted in his second moon landing when Gene Cernan (Eugene Cernan) injured his knee playing softball a few months before the flight. The injury, had it been any more severe, would have resulted in Cernan being medically dropped from the flight and John Young commanding the last two moon landings of Apollo (as a note, fellow Group 2 astronaut Pete Conrad would have done the same if he would have commanded the cancelled Apollo 20 mission, but as he already flew as commander of Apollo 12, he would have been transferred to either Skylab or the Space Shuttle and Apollo 14 CMP Stuart Roosa would have flown on Apollo 20 as commander).
[edit] Skylab 2
Young spent 28 days on the Skylab 2 Skylab 2 (also SL-2 and SLM-1[1]) was the first manned mission to Skylab, the first U.S. orbital space station. The mission was launched on a Saturn IB rocket and carried a three-person crew to the station. The name Skylab 2 also refers to the vehicle used for that mission. The Skylab 2 mission established a record for human spaceflight duration and its crew were the first space station occupants ever to come home alive (since the Salyut 1 crew died during reentry).
[edit] Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (or ASTP) was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The mission took place in July 1975. For the United States of America, it was the last Apollo flight, as well as the last manned space launch until the flight of the first Space Shuttle in April 1981.
Though the Test Project included several scientific missions (including an engineered eclipse of the Sun by Apollo for Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona), and provided useful engineering information on the synchronization of American and Soviet space technology that would prove useful in the future Shuttle-Mir Program, the primary purpose of the mission was symbolic. ASTP was seen as a symbol of the policy of détente (relaxing or easing) that the two superpowers were beginning to adopt at the time, and as a fitting end to the tension of the Space Race.
[edit] Space Shuttle
After the Apollo program ended, Young stayed on as an astronaut and flew two missions of the Space Shuttle, including commanding the Shuttle's maiden flight, STS-1, and the flight STS-9,STS-31,STS-49,STS-59,STS-84,STS-101,STS-106 which used Spacelab for the first time. Young had been in line to make a record seventh flight to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the Challenger Disaster thwarted NASA's schedule.
Young was openly critical of the administration following the disaster, and in April 1987 was taken out of the Astronaut Office and made special assistant of engineering, operations and safety to the center director Aaron Cohen. It was denied that his criticism of NASA triggered the move.
[edit] Retirement from NASA
Young worked for NASA for 42 years and announced his retirement on December 7, 2004. He retired on December 31, 2003 at the age of 70.
While Young may have been overshadowed by other pioneering astronauts, his career experience is massive. As a member of the second astronaut intake, he contributed to all of the pioneering NASA projects. As the only commander of a Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle mission, John Young holds a unique place in the history of manned space exploration.
John still attends the Monday Morning Meeting in the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center[1].
[edit] Media portrayals
In the 1995 film Apollo 13 Young was played by Ben Marley. In the 1998 TV miniseries From the Earth to the Moon he was played by John Posey.
[edit] Awards and honors
He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1981.
He was awarded the National Space Trophy in 2000.
John Young Parkway, a major highway in Central Florida, was named for him.
He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, and the Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society. He is also a member of the Georgia Tech ANAK society (considered the highest distinction a student can receive).
[edit] External links
- NASA biography of John Young
- The Big Picture: Ways to Mitigate or Prevent Very Bad Planet Earth Events Essay by John Young
- Conversation With John Young Houston Chronicle (December 17, 2004)
- U.S. Spaceflight History biography- John Young
[edit] References
- ^ Fuglesang, Christer, Tretton dygn i rymden efter fjorton år på jorden", Albert Bonniers Förlag, Sverige, 200710 (9789185555154).
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| Preceded by Alan B. Shepard, Jr. |
Chief of the Astronaut Office 1974–1987 |
Succeeded by Daniel C. Brandenstein |
[[Category:1930 births]] [[Category:American astronauts]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:United States naval aviators]] [[Category:People who have walked on the Moon]] [[Category:United States Navy officers]] [[Category:National Aviation Hall of Fame]] [[Category:Georgia Institute of Technology alumni]] [[Category:U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Inductees|Young,John]]
