Haven’t seen a story to link yet, but my Twitter TL is full of announcements that he’s departed earth for the final time. Flew in every NASA spacecraft except Mercury, first man to orbit the moon solo, and commander of the first Shuttle flight.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here‘s the NASA press release.
God speed
Ever since Neil left, it was clear that the Twilight of the Gods has begun.
One of the best. My favorite John Young video is his walk around of Columbia after returning to Earth on STS-1. The sheer joy was palpable!! Ad Astra John Young.
I remember that, too. I had read Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” about a month before. RIP, sir.
RIP and God speed.
He flew numerous naval aircraft as a line pilot, flew more as a test pilot, served as a pilot and then commander of a Gemini spacecraft, as an Apollo command module pilot and then commander of an Apollo mission as well as commander of an Apollo lunar lander and then flew twice as the commander of Space Shuttle missions. What a life. What more could an adventurous, talented, intelligent human being ask for? Well done Sir, Godspeed and thank you.
I like that he broke the rules with a sandwich. My kind of guy.
Anyone ever find out why he shut off the sensor on STS-1?
Rick C: Shut off what sensor?
I can’t find it now, of course–maybe it was on Twitter?, but I read something over the weekend about him asking someone at NASA about a sensor in the floor of the flight deck, asking what would happen if it failed. He was told “nothing”, and then shortly after the takeoff, the sensor stopped recording data, and right before landing, it started working again.
First man to eat a corned beef sandwich in orbit!
RIP.
It’s weird: Just Friday I was waxing nostalgic watching footage of STS-1 in a music video for Rush’s song “Countdown” and reading about the mission and Young on Wikipedia. Then this weekend I got this news. 🙁