Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: John Young

  • Our SpaceFlight Heritage: Apollo 10 paves way for 1st human lunar landing

    Derek RichardsonMay 18th, 2019

    As NASA takes aim on the Moon with its Artemis program, it is important to remember the missions that paved the way for the agency's first manned landing. One of the most critical of these - was Apollo 10.

  • NG-10 Cygnus mission named in honor of Apollo 16’s John Young

    Jason RhianOctober 26th, 2018

    Northrop Grumman's NG-10 Cygnus spacecraft has been named in honor of an American space flight legend - John Young.

  • NASA’s ‘most experienced’ astronaut, Moonwalker, John Young passes away aged 87

    Jason RhianJanuary 6th, 2018

    John Watts Young was one of NASA's most experienced astronauts. He served as pilot for the first manned flight of a Gemini spacecraft, Gemini 3, as commander of the Gemini 10 mission, as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 10 and the Commander of Apollo 16. Young also served as Commander of STS-1, the daring first flight of the Shuttle Era as well as another shuttle mission, STS-9. However, Young was much more and his career was filled with accomplishments, something his colleagues reflected on upon hearing of his passing.

  • Our SpaceFlight Heritage: Descartes and the voyage of Apollo 16

    David DarlingApril 20th, 2016

    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The public often forgets that there were six successful crewed missions to send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Apollo 16 was the next-to-last mission and would see crews sent to the lunar highlands for the first time ever. 

  • Our Space Flight Heritage: Launch of Apollo 10 forty six years ago

    Gregory CecilMay 18th, 2015

    Forty-six years ago today on May 18, 1969, the crew of Apollo 10 lifted off from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center for what NASA described as “a dress rehearsal for the first Moon Landing.” On board the Apollo Command Module, named Charlie Brown, were commander Thomas Stafford, lunar module pilot Eugene Cernan, and command module […]

  • Our SpaceFlight Heritage: The saga of Apollo 16

    Collin SkocikApril 18th, 2015

    On April 16, 1972, a gigantic Saturn V rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida, and boosted the Apollo 16 spacecraft onto the United States’ fifth Moon landing. It was the second “J” mission, carrying extra oxygen as well as battery power, a Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) for the Command and Service […]

  • Our Spaceflight Heritage: This Day in Spaceflight History

    Gregory CecilApril 12th, 2015

    April 12 is a historic day in terms of human spaceflight. Today marks the 54th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight on Vostok 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the former Soviet Union. He was the first human to ever fly in space. Twenty years later, in 1981, the first reusable spacecraft Columbia was launched from […]

  • Our SpaceFlight Heritage: 50 years since the launch of Gemini 3

    James RiceMarch 23rd, 2015

    The United States’ first dual crew member mission, Gemini 3, lifted off fifty years ago on Tuesday March 23, 1965, at 9:24 a.m. Eastern time from Launch Complex 19 in Cape Canaveral, FL. This was just 5 days after the Soviet Alexei Leonov’s first spacewalk.