John Young, astronaut who walked on the moon dies

The astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and flew the first space shuttle mission, has died aged 87.

 

Young visited space six times including on Apollo and Gemini missions, NASA said.

In a statement, the agency tweets: “We’re saddened by the loss of astronaut John Young, who was 87.
“Young flew twice to the Moon, walked on its surface and flew the first Space Shuttle mission.

“He went to space six times in the Gemini, Apollo & Space Shuttle programs.”

 

Young’s career at Nasa stretched for 42 years, during which he became the first human to fly in space six times.

He was in Nasa’s second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with the likes of Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Young maintained Nasa should be developing massive rockets to lift payloads to the moon to industrialise it, he said, and building space systems for detecting and deflecting comets or asteroids that could threaten Earth.

The country needs it. The world needs it. Civilisation needs it,” he said in 2000, adding: “I don’t need it. I’m not going to be here that long.”

He retired in 2004.

Young spent his last 17 years at Johnson Space Centre in Houston in management, focusing on safety issues.

He was born in San Francisco in September 1930 and died on Friday.

Seven of the 12 men that were on the Apollo Mission to the moon are now dead.