John Young (astronaut)

John Watts Young (September 24, 1930 – January 5, 2018) was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer.

John Watts Young was born at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California, on September 24, 1930, to William Young, a civil engineer, and Wanda Young (Howland).

His father lost his job during the Great Depression, and the family moved to Cartersville, Georgia, in 1932.

In 1936, the family moved to Orlando, Florida, where he attended Princeton Elementary School.

When Young was five years old, his mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and taken to Florida State Hospital.

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Young's father joined the U.S. Navy as a Seabee and left Young and his younger brother Hugh in the care of a housekeeper.

Young's father returned after the war and became a plant superintendent for a citrus company.

Young attended Orlando High School, where he competed in football, baseball, and track and field, before he graduated in 1948.

Young attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Naval ROTC scholarship.

He completed a midshipman cruise aboard USS Missouri (BB-63), where he worked alongside his future Apollo 10 crewmate Thomas P. Stafford, and another aboard USS Newport News (CA-148).

His senior year, Young served as regiment commander of his ROTC detachment.

He was a member of the honor societies Scabbard and Blade, Tau Beta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, ANAK Society, and the Sigma Chi fraternity.

In 1952, Young graduated second in his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy on June 6, 1952.

Young applied to become a naval aviator, but was selected to become a gunnery officer aboard USS Laws (DD-558) out of Naval Base San Diego.

He completed a Pacific deployment as a fire control and division officer on Laws in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War.

In May 1953, he received orders to flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Young first flew the SNJ-5 Texan in flight school and was then selected for helicopter training.

He flew the HTL-5 and HUP-2 helicopters and completed helicopter training in January 1954.

Young returned to flying the SNJ-5, and advanced to fly the T-28 Trojan, F6F Hellcat, and the F9F Panther.

He graduated from flight school and received his aviator wings in December 1954.

After flight school, Young was assigned to Fighter Squadron 103 (VF-103) at NAS Cecil Field to fly the F9F Cougar.

In August 1956, he deployed with the Sixth Fleet aboard USS Coral Sea (CV-43) to the Mediterranean Sea.

Young flew during the Suez Crisis, but did not fly in combat.

His squadron returned in February 1957, and later that year began the transition to fly the F8U Crusader.

In September 1958, VF-103 deployed with the Sixth Fleet on USS Forrestal (CV-59) to the Mediterranean Sea.

In January 1959, Young was selected to be in Class 23 at the United States Naval Test Pilot School and returned home from deployment.

In 1959, Young graduated second in his class and was assigned to the Armament Division at the Naval Air Test Center.

In 1962, Young was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 2.

He flew on the first crewed Gemini mission (Gemini 3) in 1965, and then commanded the 1966 Gemini 10 mission.

In 1969, he flew as command module pilot on Apollo 10.

He became the 9th person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

He is the only astronaut to fly on four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo command and service module, the Apollo Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle.

Before becoming an astronaut, Young received his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and joined the U.S. Navy.

After serving at sea during the Korean War he became a naval aviator and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.

As a test pilot, he set several world time-to-climb records.

In 1972, he commanded Apollo 16 and spent three days on the lunar surface exploring the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke.

Young served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, and retired from NASA in 2004, after 42 years of service.

Young retired from the Navy in 1976 with the rank of captain.

Young also commanded STS-1 in 1981, the Space Shuttle program's first launch, and STS-9 in 1983, both of which were on.

He was one of only two astronauts, along with Ken Mattingly, his command module pilot during the Apollo 16 mission, to fly on both an Apollo mission and a Space Shuttle mission, and the only astronaut to walk on the moon and fly on the Space Shuttle.