The legendary astronaut John Young died

The legendary astronaut John Young died

The well-known astronaut John Young, who set off for the moon and the first flight of the space shuttle, died on January 5th. He was 87 years old. Representatives from NASA reported that it happened on Friday night at his home after complications from pneumonia.

NASA spoke of Young as one of the pioneers — the only astronaut from the agency who became part of Gemini. The first to go into space 6 times. He became the 9th man on earth satellite.

His career spanned 3 generations of space flight. John was one of the early pioneers, whose courage and dedication allowed humanity to break out of the boundaries of the home planet.

He was the only astronaut involved in the development of Gemini, Apollo and the shuttle programs. He is also the only one who was 6 times removed from the Earth. His performance for a long time remained record.

Yang flew twice during the 2-year Gemini mission in the 1960s, twice on the Moon at Apollo and sailed twice on board the new Columbia spacecraft in the 1980s. His career path lasted 42 years (longer than that of any other astronaut) and was respected for his persistent desire to keep crew members safe.

After the death of three astronauts at the launch of Apollo in 1967, Young tightly controlled every phase of his flight and spoke openly about the problems. He tried in every way to draw attention to the shortcomings.

Yang remained devoted to space and in the early 1970s, when many of his peers left, and continued to work until his retirement age in 2004.

He fell into the second class of NASA astronauts recruited in 1962, along with Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell. Young was the first in the group to go into space. It was a flight with Gus Griss in the 1965 Gemini mission. They were the ones who secretly brought a corned beef sandwich to joke.

The legendary astronaut John Young died

Image from 1972, where John Young salutes the American flag on the lunar landing site during the first extra-terrestrial activities of Apollo 16

Interestingly, this particular sandwich caused a serious scandal between NASA and Congress. Yang was always surprised that people were able to forget about the 5-hour cosmic success and concentrate on a 2-minute joke.

After 2 years, the mission of Gemini was completed and the Apollo start was approaching. Young then asked Grissom why he did not report anything about the bad wiring aboard the Apollo 1. But Grissom was afraid that he would be fired. A few weeks later, it was this problem that caused the fire that killed the first crew along with Gus.

After that, security measures were introduced, which helped save the next 12 astronauts who visited the moon. Young arrived at lunar orbit on May 10, 1969 in preparation for the landing of Apollo 11. After 3 years, he commanded Apollo 16 and became the last person to go by satellite.

After Yang joined the Shuttle missions and successfully managed Colombia in 1981, along with co-pilot Robert Crippen. It was a risk, since NASA never launched people on an untested spacecraft. But it all ended in success.

Yang also became the latest on board Colombia and his reputation continued to grow. He first announced possible problems before the launch of Challenger. Then they did not know about the danger of starting and problems with the sealing ring. At the time of launch, Yang flew on a test apparatus and photographed the cockpit with 7 astronauts. He said that many considered this launch deadly.

The legendary astronaut John Young died

Undated Photo Shows Astronaut John Young

Despite the setbacks, Young believed that space exploration was worth the risk. In the 1990s and 2000s, he stated that the United States should carry out 2-3 times more space research. He assured that NASA is required to create massive rockets to deliver payloads to the moon and to industrialize the satellite. In addition, it was important to create a system to protect the Earth from asteroids.

John was not afraid to shock and even frighten people with his statements in the media to induce science to action. He spent the last 17 years at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, focusing on safety issues. Resigned in 2004.

Born in 1930 in Orlando (Florida). In childhood I became interested in aviation, and began to work in Titusville. After receiving a degree in engineering, he continued to study in the navy. He served in Korea as a weapon officer. As a result, he became a naval fighter pilot and pilot.

Young received more than a hundred major awards and even after leaving NASA continued to agitate for the active development of space. Until the last days, he believed that it was technological development that would allow us to reach unknown depths of space.

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