Business & Science
John Young
John Young flew in Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, walked on the Moon and commanded the first Shuttle flight, then spent decades in engineering and safety leadership at Houston's Johnson Space Center.
- Roster rank
- #176
- Category
- Business & Science
- Subject type
- Person
- Profile source
- Published Texas Icons profile
Texas story
Life and career
John Watts Young was born in San Francisco and grew up largely in Florida, so he should not be portrayed as a native Texan. A Navy test pilot, he joined NASA's second astronaut group in 1962 and eventually became the only astronaut to fly across the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.
Young walked on the Moon as Apollo 16 commander and later commanded STS-1, the first Space Shuttle mission. His Texas connection deepened after Apollo: he led the Space Shuttle Branch, served as chief of the Astronaut Office and later held senior engineering, operations and safety roles at Johnson Space Center in Houston until retiring from NASA in 2004.
Defining work
What to know
- Gemini 3 and Gemini 10
- Apollo 16 Moon landing
- STS-1 commander
- six spaceflights
- Johnson Space Center safety leadership
Timeline
Key milestones
- 1930Born in San Francisco, California.
- 1962Selected for NASA's second astronaut group.
- 1972Commands Apollo 16 and walks on the Moon.
- 1981Commands STS-1, the first Space Shuttle flight.
- 1983Flies STS-9, becoming the first person to fly in space six times from Earth.
- 2004Retires from NASA after decades of Houston-based leadership.
Texas connections
Places in the story
Houston
Longtime professional home during NASA leadership years.
Johnson Space Center
Site of Young's astronaut-office, engineering and safety leadership.
Legacy
Why the story lasts
Young's six-flight career links three major eras of U.S. human spaceflight and gives the profile a scale larger than any single mission.
His Texas relevance is accurately institutional: Johnson Space Center became the base for decades of astronaut-office, engineering and safety leadership.
Sources
Research trail
Cross-linked profiles