Eagle Biography

Captain John W. Young

Captain John Young’s career with the Navy and NASA spanned 52 years. Captain Young served aboard a destroyer in the Korean War and became a Navy fighter pilot and, subsequently, a test pilot. Selected as an astronaut in 1962, he flew the first manned Gemini mission and would ultimately fly into space six times. In April, 1972, John Young commanded Apollo 16 and walked on the Moon. After Apollo, he commanded the first Space Shuttle flight and the first shuttle Spacelab mission.