News Astronaut John Young dies at 87

Frilock

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Astronaut John Young has died.

"John Young, an astronaut who became the ninth person to walk on the moon has died. He was 87.NASA announced Young's death on Twitter Saturday afternoon. Young flew into space six times during his 42 year NASA career, including two trips to the moon. He commanded the Apollo 16 mission to the moon in 1972. Young was also on the first Space Shuttle mission in 1981."
 

GLS

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I'm just gonna put this video here:
(start at 2:30)

RIP :(
 

Wolf

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R.I.P. :(
WHAT A LIFE. AFAIK the only man to walk on the moon and fly the Space Shuttle
 

Andy44

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Absolutely one of the greatest, bravest aviators ever to strap on a rocket ship. Ice water for blood, I can think of few other pilots you'd want in the cockpit of your vehicle. I really kind of thought he'd live forever. RIP John Young.
 

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No more challenges, left for him in this life. He will be missed. :salute:
 

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Young almost got himself booted out of astronaut corp for stunt on GEMINI 3 -
the first manned flight of Gemini program

GEMINI 3 was 3 orbit checkout of spacecraft - Young has smuggled a corn beef sandwich from WOLFIES deli aboard

He asked Gus Grissom during flight if wanted piece of it

After splashdown Young became sea sick (Gemini 3 landed 50 miles from
planned landing spot do to incorrect lift vector of spacecraft on reentry) and literally lost his lunch

Caused quite an uproar in NASA about unauthorized food on board
 

Codz

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From walking on the Moon to commanding the bold first test flight of the Space Shuttle and beyond, John Young was truly one of the astronauts who most inspired me and is one of the reasons I decided to pursue engineering. Ad Astra, Captain Young and thank you for a lifetime of service.
 

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Apparently Young was in charge of the astronaut office at the time of the first shuttle flight, and selected himself for it!

He did a lot of interesting things, but the first shuttle flight gets my attention - a lot of sources have said it was probably the most audacious test flight of any aircraft in history.

I've found a few quotes on various old articles, but never seen an original source, that NASA wanted to make that first shuttle flight a deliberate RTLS abort. (!) Young is claimed to have said at the time, "Let's not play Russian Roulette". (or wording very close to that.)
 

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Caused quite an uproar in NASA about unauthorized food on board

Especially because one experiment was about testing astronaut food during the 4 hour mission and he almost sabotaged it. But in a good way.

On STS-1, corned beef was on the official menu for the first time. :thumbup:
 

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There were various tales of his dislike for orange juice too :)

(On Apollo 16 a microphone was left open by accident, and in the LM John Young was complaining to Charlie Duke about the nutrient-spiked citrus concoctions they were forced to drink. I don't remember the exact words but there are some quite funny transcripts of the robust language he used when discussing this.)
 

Donamy

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I believe it was Tang.
 

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There were various tales of his dislike for orange juice too :)

(On Apollo 16 a microphone was left open by accident, and in the LM John Young was complaining to Charlie Duke about the nutrient-spiked citrus concoctions they were forced to drink. I don't remember the exact words but there are some quite funny transcripts of the robust language he used when discussing this.)

You mean like the transliteration as "garble" of "static" in the Apollo 12 transcript?:lol:
 

Andy44

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He did a lot of interesting things, but the first shuttle flight gets my attention - a lot of sources have said it was probably the most audacious test flight of any aircraft in history.

I'd agree with that. To ride an untested launch vehicle and then fly an untested hypersonic glider at mach 25 after orbiting it for the first time without checking it out remotely seems insanely risky.

NASA did lots of studies, of course, and claimed to know the risk and to be "managing" it, but they were also brimming with confidence after the Apollo and Skylab years, and of course, they were under pressure and behind schedule to get STS up and running.

Add to that what I read in Mike Mullane's book: the fact that normally very level-headed astronauts tend to bite off on riskier activities if saying "no" might mean never getting your ride in space. This mentality might apply to Bob Crippen, who had missed his chance to fly in the Apollo era, but it shouldn't have applied to Young, who had already been to the moon twice and walked on it, and thus had nothing left to prove.

So he must've had confidence that STS would work, but as the leader of the astronaut corps, he also knew that if he didn't risk his own hide in Columbia's cockpit, then some other, more eager astronaut would surely do so in his place. Hence the bravery.
 

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“Careful engineering-oriented test pilots generated the most useful flight data...and also tended to live a lot longer. That was the kind of test pilot I wanted to be: informed, experienced, productive, valued...alive.” -John Young

One of my favorite quotes from Captain Young.
 

barrygolden

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I think Domany said it best, " What a life" He was quite an astronaut. I would have loved to been him
 
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