John W. Young

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Young
John Young in 2002
US Navy test pilot
In office
1959–1962
NASA astronaut
In office
1962–2004
Personal details
Born
John Watts Young

(1930-09-24)September 24, 1930
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedJanuary 5, 2018(2018-01-05) (aged 87)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materGeorgia Institute of Technology, B.S. 1952
OccupationNaval Aviator, test pilot

Captain 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.[1] Young was on the first orbital Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, in April 1981. He was the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

Young was born in San Francisco, California. He studied at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In 1956, Young married Barbara White. They divorced in 1972. They had two children.[2] Young died of complications from pneumonia in Houston, Texas on January 5, 2018 at the age of 87.[3]

References[change | change source]

  1. "Biographical Data: John W. Young (Captain, USN Ret.)". NASA.gov. August 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
  2. "Young: America's old man of space". Nashua Telegraph. Vol. 113, no. 36. Associated Press. April 11, 1981. p. 23.
  3. https://www.npr.org/2018/01/06/517138761/astronaut-john-young-who-flew-in-space-6-times-dies-at-87

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to John W. Young at Wikimedia Commons