John Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut thus far. Over the course of 42 years of active NASA service he made six space flights and is the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

Space Rocket History #188 – Apollo 10 – Command Module Pilot John Young

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

History

Society & Culture

Science

Just before the mission began things started to go wrong. The weekend before launch Charlie Duke, the backup lunar module pilot, came down with a case of German measles.
Homepage with pictures.

Space Rocket History #259 – Apollo 13 – Introduction – Part 2

Targeted for touchdown on the third lunar landing was a place known as the Fra Mauro range, a stretch of rugged, Appalachian-type mounds 110 miles east of the Apollo 12 landing site.
Homepage with pictures.

Space Rocket History #258 – Apollo 13 – Introduction – Part 1

Ten days ago, their Saturn V rocket had blasted Bean and his crew mates out of earth’s gravitational pull. Now their home planet was pulling them back at more than 24,000 miles per hour, twelve times faster than a high-speed rifle bullet. “Boy,” said Bean, “we are really hauling!”
Homepage with pictures

Space Rocket History #257 – Apollo 12 – Return, Re-entry and Splashdown

Dick Gordon opened the tunnel to Intrepid, saw his companions floating in a dirty cloud of moon dust, and slammed the hatch closed. He called out, “You guys ain’t gonna mess up my nice clean spacecraft!”
Homepage with pictures

Space Rocket History #256 – Apollo 12 – Leaving the Moon

After a total of 31.6 hours on the moon, the Lunar Module ascent stage fired for about 7 minutes placing Intrepid into an orbit of 10 miles by 54 miles.
Homepage with pictures

Space Rocket History #188 – Apollo 10 – Command Module Pilot John Young

Download our free app to listen on your phone