Fwd: John Young turned 86 on Saturday

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: September 26, 2016 at 10:33:53 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: John Young turned 86 on Saturday

Happy birthday John Young, it was an Honor to have worked with you during Apollo, Space Shuttle Program, and when you were Technical Assistant to Center Director George Abbey.

Take care,

Gary

 

Moon-walking astronaut John Young turned 86 on Saturday

 

 

John Young, astronaut and Navy veteran, salutes the U.S. flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA-1). Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, jumps up from the lunar surface as astronaut and Air Force veteran, Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot, took this picture.

(NASA, Charles M. Duke Jr.)

Emilee Speck
Contact Reporter

 

Moon-walking NASA Astronaut and former Orlando resident John W. Young turns 86

At 9 years old John Watts Young moved with his family from Georgia to Orlando, 30 years later he would launch from Cape Canaveral on Gemini 3 as a NASA astronaut.

Saturday marked the retired NASA astronaut and accomplished U.S. Navy pilot's 86^th trip around the sun.

Today you can visit Young's boyhood home at 806 W. Princeton St. in College Park. A historical marker stands outside the yellow bungalow-style house with white trim and a picket fence.

John Young Parkway is named in honor of the space explorer.

Young graduated from Orlando High School --now Edgewater High School-- and went on to Georgia Institute of Technology.

After graduating with honors from Georgia Tech, Young served in the U.S. Navy in Fighter Squadron 103 and later as test pilot for 25 years, setting world records for time-to-climb in the Phantom fighter jet, according to NASA's biography of Young. The F-4 Phantom Fighter II reaches two times the speed of sound.

Like all of the first NASA astronauts, having the nerves of a test pilot made Young a good candidate too when he was selected by NASA in 1962.

Young would go on to fly on five missions after Gemini 3, including the Apollo 16 mission to the moon, landing on the surface and returning lunar materials to Earth.

Young is the only astronaut to pilot four different spacecraft: Gemini, Apollo 10 and 16 and Space Shuttle Columbia's maiden voyage in 1981.

When he retired in 2004, Captain Young had logged more than 15,000 hours flying for the U.S. Navy and 835 hours in his six missions to space.

Happy birthday, Captain! 

 

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