by "Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
Published 03/09/2017 at 00:02
by "Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
Published 03/09/2017 at 00:02
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STARS: 6
Who is he? You might be asking out loud, “ How is that not Neil Armstrong? ” Well, Neil Armstrong didn’t fly three types of spacecraft AND walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong didn’t smoke cigars with this kind of style. So who is it?
John W. Young
, one of two astronauts who flew both an Apollo capsule
and
the Space Shuttle, but the ONLY one to fly Gemini on top of that. That’s not all. He flew six missions in total. Two in each. Wally Schirra may have done three types the other way, starting
Metcury
/Gemini/Apollo, but only did one mission in each and never set foot on
a moon
.
Lets
look at
Youngs
list:
Gemini-3 (The FIRST Gemini mission) where he smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board and shared it with Gus Grisson.
Let’s see how far you can get bringing contraband to your first day at work.
It began to crumble, proving starting an awesome deli in space would be a huge problem unless someone invents crumbless rye bread.
Gemini-10, where they did two space walks (Michael Collins) and performed docking maneuvers. Working out how Apollo’s stages and maneuvers will and won’t, uh, work.
Apollo-10, where the crew was the second trip to orbit the moon, first to do a full dress rehersal even doing a lander separation down to 8 miles above surface .
On that mission, they heard sounds where they couldn’t determine a source. This video is of that recording, but the video doesn’t match up. The cooler parts are where we can see the working space and hear how they did their job.
Apollo-16, where they landed on the moon, and then he walked on it, then, drove around on it (are you listening, Armstrong fans?) in the lunar rover. (The Canavaral -Lunar Highlands off-road challenge.) Even though it was the second rover on the moon, I’m sure it was faster.
STS-1 where he commanded the first Space Shuttle Columbia flight. The magnificent future for any of us growing up eighties . Future is now, and he was now the first astronaut for five missions.
(Young on the right-
walkin
’ out to the launch like a boss!)
OH, he wasn’t near finished! STS-9, where he became the first astronaut to six missions, was dedicated entirely to spacelab-1: proving the ability to conduct advanced scientific research in space. (Here is work gettin’ done in spacelab-1. Young isn’t pictured, but when men get real work done, they take off their shirts. I don’t know of any fence mendin’ gettin’ done with a shirt on, and real science work in space is about as close to fence mendin’ on earth because you can’t repair telescopes and satellites on a space walk without a shirt on or you’ll die.)
He was in line to fly his 7th mission, the one to deploy the Hubble Telescope, but the Challenger disaster put a serious delay into that idea, and the flight canceled.
Employed by NASA for 42 years! 1967 to 2004. (Imagine the government retirement math on that one!)
For 14 of those years, he was Chief of the Astronaut office. A chief pilot of NASA if you will.
Trained for 15,000 hours, mostly in simulators for main and backup positions in 11 missions.
So who can even come close? Alan Shephard would have flown in three types as well, and did learn all of it, but illness kept him on Earth for a while. Valeri Polyakov? 437 days straight in space? Maybe, but that’s quite a bit of time to study yourself in space and not go anywhere or advance space ship technology and procedure.
So is Young the most badass of all astronauts/cosmonauts/* nauts ? What do you think?
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
03/09/2017 at 00:14, STARS: 1
I know I sure associate Georgia Tech with badasses and definitely not with nerds
"Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap" (ddadragon)
03/09/2017 at 00:44, STARS: 0
On a technicality wouldn’t it be “Quite possibly the most badass astronaut out of this world”
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
03/09/2017 at 01:57, STARS: 0
Oh you have a Prius, that’s cute.
"Brian McKay" (brianmckay)
03/09/2017 at 02:09, STARS: 1
Apollo 8 orbited the moon first.
"Brian McKay" (brianmckay)
03/09/2017 at 02:14, STARS: 1
Neil Armstrong did fly spacecraft of three types and then walk on the moon: Gemini capsule+Apollo command module+Apollo lunar lander.
Other astronauts flew Mercury + Gemini + Apollo.
"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
03/09/2017 at 02:18, STARS: 0
Minor details fixed. 10 did the full rehersal down to 8 miles, lem separation. 8 did not. More babysteps in the program. I wonder if theyll do that for the future mars work.
"Brian McKay" (brianmckay)
03/09/2017 at 02:25, STARS: 0
Jim Lovell flew five missions, from Gemini through Skylab. Many of the pioneering astronauts were hotshots, even if they didn’t wait for years to fly Shuttle missions but rather moved elsewhere for careers.
"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
03/09/2017 at 02:26, STARS: 0
Oh including the lem now are we. Only 2 missions for him. We could then expand youngs portfolio as well to the lem on apollo 16 and the rover, making 5 types.
Point is 3 entirely different space flight systems. Anyone else do 3 programs?
"Brian McKay" (brianmckay)
03/09/2017 at 02:29, STARS: 0
Lunar Landing Modules are piloted spaceships, but rovers/cars are not.
"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
03/09/2017 at 02:35, STARS: 0
Merc/gem/apollo? Only 1, schirra, and he only did 3 missions, no moon landing.
Ill throw in a minor edit about schirra, but Young still remains the badass.
"Brian McKay" (brianmckay)
03/09/2017 at 02:35, STARS: 0
Wally Shirra flew Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. And Grissom would have.
"My X-type is too a real Jaguar" (TomSlick)
03/09/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 0
Pete Conrad was the world’s most badass astrounaut, He swore so much NASA’s Apollo 14 transcripts were censored, he learned to fly as a teenager, and he died in motorcycle crash.