RIP John Young

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He had a long and illustrious career. The longest serving astronaut to grace the halls of Johnson Space Center. I had the chance to meet him on a few occasions, with the most memorable time being on the 20th anniversary of STS-1 at Kennedy Space Center. I was a junior in high school that April, and I worked at the KSC Visitor's Center as a tour guide. I was honored to be one of three or four tour guides tasked with escorting the VIP honorees to the various events that day, and being their gophers. I spent a few hours in the green room with just Young and Robert Crippen, and a coworker, and Mr Young was one of the most gracious and humble guys I have met. He took the time to talk with me, a young, overly enthusiastic space geek. Its a memory I will always remember.

RIP and God Speed, John Young
 
We met him a few times at KSC events. As Kris noted, he was an amazingly unassuming and gracious man. Yet, even if you didn't know that he had been to the moon and had commanded the first flight of the space shuttle or anything else about him, you would have known just from meeting him that he was a man who had accomplished great things. He just had that kind of aura about him.

Totally charming and approachable, he was a master of deadpan humor. He would slip a joke into a speech or conversation and he be well along before you would get the joke.

He is considered a home-town hero here in Orlando - though he didn't live here very long. That's okay. He deserves to be considered a hero everywhere.

-- Roger and Bracha
 
We met him a few times at KSC events. As Kris noted, he was an amazingly unassuming and gracious man. Yet, even if you didn't know that he had been to the moon and had commanded the first flight of the space shuttle or anything else about him, you would have known just from meeting him that he was a man who had accomplished great things. He just had that kind of aura about him.

Totally charming and approachable, he was a master of deadpan humor. He would slip a joke into a speech or conversation and he be well along before you would get the joke.

He is considered a home-town hero here in Orlando - though he didn't live here very long. That's okay. He deserves to be considered a hero everywhere.

-- Roger and Bracha

I'll bet even Bart Sibrell has to admit he was more gracious than Buzz Aldrin. LOL

See Astronaut Young - go to 25:18 here:

[video=youtube;Qr6Vcvl0OeU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr6Vcvl0OeU&t=1001s[/video]
 
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A hero, pioneer, icon, test pilot and ambassador that got to walk on the moon too! What a life :)
 
He was my favorite astronaut. Flew every crewed US spacecraft except for Mercury.

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Command Module Pilot for Apollo-10

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Commander for Apollo-16 (It was the commanders who landed the Lunar Modules, the Lunar Module Pilots were given the title but not the controls, they were co-pilots)

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And nobody was better qualified to command STS-1 than him.

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In orbit during STS-9.

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[video=youtube;jc3yImi3QyA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc3yImi3QyA[/video]
 
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