One of the pioneers of cosmonautics John Young died.

Unfortunately, even the best of the best among us leave, no one is an exception. Yesterday it became known that the American astronaut John Young died in the 88th year of his life. He set a record for space flight, which hardly anyone can repeat - he flew into space from Earth six times and took off once from the moon. Young's death was reported by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Young worked in this organization from 1962 to 2014, setting another record. In space for his career, he was about 835 hours. He flew to the Moon twice, as mentioned above, stepped onto its surface, plus he was the commander of the Columbia shuttle , which made the first manned flight in 1981.

Young also piloted the first Gemini, flying the spacecraft as part of another Gemini mission. In addition to the first flight of Columbia, Young led and ninth.
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Young's career was really impressive. After completing his studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952, the future astronaut entered the service in the US Air Force. In 1959, the NASA agency began recruiting astronauts and selected 7 people. This seven was the first of all subsequent ones. Young wanted to get into the set, but did not fit in some parameters. Already in 1962, he became one of the legendary second seven, in which Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and other astronauts fell, which became the basis of the Gemini and Apollo missions.

He made his first flight together with Virgil Gissom on the spacecraft Gemini-3 on March 23, 1965. It was the first manned flight of the American double ship under the Gemini program. Already when they returned to Earth, the astronauts learned that their ship had deviated from the original trajectory and sank 84 km from the calculated point. At sea at that time there was great excitement, and the astronauts were found only after half an hour. During these half hours, both members of the team managed to start suffering from seasickness, despite the fact that the training of the vestibular apparatus of the astronauts is very serious.

Young made his second flight in 1966, as the commander of Gemini-10. Regarding the third flight, which was carried out in 1969, Young was the commander of the Apollo-10 command module. This was the second Apollo flight with the task of entering a circumlunar orbit. During this flight, astronauts learned to perform the maneuvers needed to land on a natural satellite of the Earth. The ship after going into orbit around the moon remained under Yang’s command, and Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan made the necessary maneuvers at a height of 15 kilometers above the surface of the moon in a special module. For this flight, Young received a NASA Medal for Distinguished Service in the same 1969 year.


John Young on the moon salutes the US flag

During his fourth flight, held in 1972, Young was the commander of the Apollo-16 crew. This was already the fifth Apollo expedition during which the moon was disembarked. April 20, 1972, John Young came to the surface of the Moon personally. For this flight, he received a second medal from NASA.

Among the other merits of Young are such:

• The first manned flight to Gemini;
• First manned flight on the Columbia shuttle;
• He became the ninth astronaut to set foot on the surface of the moon;
• He became the second of three astronauts who flew twice to the moon;
• He is the first person to make five space flights;
• He also became the first man to make six space flights;
• Another achievement of Young - he became the first and the last person who flew 4 different types of ships. This record is unlikely anyone will be able to beat in the near future;
• Commander of four crews in three different space programs;
• In the open space, he spent 20 hours and 14 minutes (stay on the moon).

According to those who knew Yang, he worked very hard, and he did everything (within reasonable limits), whatever he was asked. The only thing in which he was not strong was in speaking publicly at once — he was immediately confused and lost his mind. Much later, when Young began to direct the "courses" of NASA astronauts, he played a crucial role for astronautics. He managed to choose those people who were perfect for space exploration.


John was the pioneer of space, whose courage and commitment to achieving the goals led our country to its first achievements in space. This was not enough for him, and he continued to work for a long time after his six space flights, "said Roberat Lightfoot, head of NASA.