John Watts Young (September 24, 1930 – January 5, 2018) was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.
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. Young retired from the Navy in 1976 with the rank of captain.
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, and became the first person to orbit the Moon alone. In 1972, he commanded Apollo 16 and spent three days on the lunar surface exploring the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke. Young also commanded STS-1 in 1981, the Space Shuttle program's first launch, and STS-9 in 1983, both of which were on Columbia.
Young is the only astronaut to have flown in four different classes of NASA spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo command module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.
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. Young served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, and retired from NASA in 2004, after 42 years of service.
John Watts Young was born at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, California, on September 24, 1930, to William Hugh Young, a civil engineer, and Wanda Young (née 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, where he worked alongside his future Apollo 10 crewmate Thomas P. Stafford, and another aboard USS Newport News. 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 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 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 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. He worked alongside future astronaut James A. Lovell Jr. and tested the F-4 Phantom II fighter weapons systems. In 1962, he set two world time-to-climb records in the F-4, reaching 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in 34.52 seconds and 25,000 m (82,000 ft) in 227.6 seconds. In 1962, Young was assigned to fly with Fighter Squadron 143 (VF-143) until his selection as an astronaut in September 1962.
Young retired from the Navy as a captain in September 1976. He had 24 years of service.
In September 1962, Young was selected to join NASA Astronaut Group 2. Young and his family moved to Houston, Texas, and he began his astronaut flying, physical, and academic training. After he completed his initial training, Young was assigned to work on the environmental control system and survival gear. Young's team selected the David Clark Company G3C pressure suit, and he helped develop the waste disposal and airlock development systems.
In April 1964, Young was selected as the pilot of Gemini 3, commanded by Gus Grissom. The crew had originally been Alan Shepard and Thomas P. Stafford, but they were replaced after Shepard was diagnosed with Ménière's disease. The Gemini 3 backup commander was Wally Schirra, with Stafford as the backup pilot. The primary mission of Gemini 3 was to test the ability of the spacecraft to perform orbital maneuvers throughout the flight. Biological experiments were assigned to test the effects of radiation on human blood and microgravity on cell division, and an experiment to test reentry communications was created. Both crews initially trained in simulators at the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved their training when the simulators were set up at the Manned Spacecraft Center and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in October 1964. Both primary and backup crews participated in Gemini 3's capsule system tests before it left the McDonnell facility. The capsule was brought to the Kennedy Space Center on January 4, 1965, and both crews trained in it from February 14 to March 18. Young advocated for a longer mission than the planned three orbits, but his suggestion was rejected.
On March 23, 1965, Young and Grissom entered their capsule at 7:30 a.m. They conducted their preflight system checkout ahead of schedule but had to delay the launch after there was a leak in an oxidizer line in the Titan II GLV. Gemini 3 launched at 9:24 a.m. from LC-19 and entered in a 122 × 182 km (76 × 113 mi) elliptical orbit. Twenty minutes into flight, Young recognized multiple anomalous system readings and determined that there might be issues with the instrument power supply. He switched from the primary power supply to the backup, which solved the issue. Young successfully completed the radiation experiment on human blood, but Grissom accidentally broke a handle and was unable to complete his assigned experiment on cell division. Gemini 3 successfully conducted its orbital maneuver tests that allowed it to circularize its orbit, change its orbital plane, and lower its perigee to 72 km (45 mi). On the third orbit, Young fired the retrorockets to begin re-entry. The lift the capsule experienced during reentry was less than predicted, and Gemini 3 landed 84 km (52 mi) short of its target area. After the parachutes deployed, the crew shifted the capsule to its landing orientation, which caused both of them to be thrown forward into the windshield and damaged the faceplates on their helmets. The crew remained inside the capsule for 30 minutes as they waited for a helicopter to retrieve them, and they and the capsule were successfully recovered aboard USS Intrepid. After the flight, it was discovered that Young had smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard, which he and Grissom shared while testing food. The House Committee on Appropriations launched a hearing regarding the incident, and some members argued that the two astronauts had disrupted the scheduled food test.