Young, John, 1930-2018

John Young 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. He flew on four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo command and service module, the Apollo Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle. Before becoming an astronaut, Young received his Bachelor of Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and joined the U.S. Navy. After serving at sea during the Korean War he became a naval aviator and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. As a test pilot, he set several world time-to-climb records. Young retired from the Navy in 1976 with the rank of captain.

In 1962, Young was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 2. Young served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974 to 1987, and retired from NASA in 2004.