John W. Young

After being selected in September 1962 as an astronaut, John Young flew on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, the first flight of the Space Shuttle (STS-1), and was the Spacecraft Commander of STS-9.

Quick Facts

Young was on five backup space flight crews including: Gemini 6, the second Apollo mission, Apollo 7, Apollo 13, and Apollo 17.

👁 Young was on five backup space flight crews including: Gemini 6, the second Apollo mission, Apollo 7, Apollo 13, and Apollo 17.

Young has had six space flights totaling 835 hours.

👁 Young has had six space flights totaling 835 hours.

On December 31, 2004, John Young retired from NASA.

👁 On December 31, 2004, John Young retired from NASA.

John Young is the first person to fly in space six times from earth, and seven times counting his lunar liftoff.

👁 John Young is the first person to fly in space six times from earth, and seven times counting his lunar liftoff.

👁 Portrait - Astronaut John W. Young in white space suit

S69-32616 (April 1969) — Astronaut John W. Young, prime crew command module pilot of the Apollo 10 lunar orbit mission.

NASA

👁 Gemini X crew on recovery ship

The crew of the Gemini-10 spaceflight, astronauts John W. Young (left) and Michael Collins (right), arrive aboard the recovery ship USS Guadalcanal on July 21, 1966. The astronauts were picked up from the ocean, by recovery helicopter and flown to the recovery ship to begin postflight medical and technical debriefings.

NASA

👁 Four Gemini astronauts standing together in their silver space suits.

S64-19432 (13 April 1964) — Left to right are astronauts John W. Young, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford. Gemini III crew assignments are as follows: Grissom, command pilot; Young, pilot, on the prime crew, with Schirra (command pilot) and Stafford (pilot) serving as alternates. EDITOR’S NOTE: For the Gemini-Titan VI mission, Grissom and Young served as backups for Schirra and Stafford.

NASA

👁 Crew portrat of three astronauts in spacesuits

These three astronauts were selected by NASA as the prime crew of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission. They are, left to right, Thomas K. Mattingly II, command module pilot; John W. Young, commander; and Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot.

NASA

👁 Image

S79-31775 (29 April 1979) — These two astronauts are the prime crewmen for the first flight in the Space Transportation System (STS-1) program. Astronauts John W. Young, left, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, will man the space shuttle orbiter 102 Columbia for the first orbital flight test. Photo credit: NASA

Biography

John W. Young

Learn more about Astronaut John W. Young, including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more.

Learn More about John W. Young

👁 Astronaut John Young during final suiting operations for Apollo 10 mission

S69-34485 (18 May 1969) — Astronaut John W. Young, Apollo 10 command module pilot, adjusts strap on his communications cap during suiting up operations for the lunar orbit mission. Minutes later astronauts Young; Thomas P. Stafford, commander; and Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot, rode a transfer van from the Kennedy Space Center’s Manned Spacecraft Operations Building over to Pad B, Launch Complex 39, where their spacecraft awaited them. Liftoff was at 12:49 p.m. (EDT), May 18, 1969.

NASA