Space: Image of the Day #5

[Robert Bruce]

Image of the Day #5

The photo is from the Apollo 16 mission of the view from the Lunar Module of the CM with the moon as a sensational backdrop as it approached to dock for the last time to re-unite the moon walkers, John Young and Charlie Duke with the CM pilot, Ken Mattingly, who NASA replaced on the Apollo 13 mission with Jack Swigert because they thought incorrectly that Ken would contract measles.

John Young richly deserves his place in the history of space exploration due to being the man who was:

1.   The first astronaut to use a computer on-board a spacecraft during his Gemini 3 mission,
2.   Was the CM pilot who took man the closest to the moon without landing during the Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 only two months before Apollo 11
3.   Achieved his goal to walk on the moon when he commanded the Apollo 16 mission and probably took the photo above
4.   Was commander of mission STS-1 the boldest test flight flight of a re-usable spacecraft - the shuttle prototype "Columbia". Jonh Young (left in photo below) and fellow astronaut Bob Crippen would 'take-off like a rocket but return to earth to land like a plane'. In terms of this being a first, it was the first time in spaceflight history that the maiden flight of an untested brand new spacecraft flew with crew aboard.

[Robert Bruce]

John Young is quite the Space Cowboy legend. Nerves if steel.