# One fewer man who walked on another world - John Young RIP **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021 "2018-01-07T02:29:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/1 "2018-01-07T02:29:54Z")
[NASA’s longest-active-service astronaut, John Young, passes away.](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-remembers-agency-s-most-experienced-astronaut) Was part of the Astronaut corps for 42 years… from the first Gemini flight to the Space Shuttle. Now we have a minority of the moonwalkers still living; and but a vague inkling on when there will be another. How a page of history passes… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/2 "2018-01-07T03:46:50Z")
Aw, geeze. He was my favorite Astronaut Most People Have Never Heard Of. (AKA Astronauts Not Named “Neil” or “Buzz”.) Six space missions wasn’t quite [the record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Most_spaceflights), BUT: He literally personally flew every manned space vehicle NASA put up there after Mercury (and before…Orion or whatever replaces the Space Shuttle, assuming something ever does in fact replace the Space Shuttle). He was the “pilot” (NASA-speak for “co-pilot”) on Gemini 3, and went on to be actual pilot on [Gemini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gemini_spacecraft.jpg) 10. On Apollo 10, he flew the [Apollo Command Module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_CSM_lunar_orbit.jpg) (and went to–though not actually on–the Moon). Then on Apollo 16, he personally flew the [Apollo Lunar Module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo16LM.jpg) (and became part of the ultra-select group of people who went to the Moon _twice_), and that time he got to walk on the Moon. (And he drove the [Lunar Rover](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo15LunarRover.jpg) on that mission.) Then, in 1981, he flew the [Space Shuttle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Shuttle_Columbia_lands_following_STS-28_in_1989.jpg) on its maiden voyage. That’s four different kinds of spacecraft, altogether! (Plus driving the “moon buggy”.) His sixth and final mission was another Space Shuttle flight. There’s something almost Hollywood about that career. (Plus, there was the [corned beef sandwich incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_3#Flight) on his very first mission, but they still kept sending him back out there.) “John Young–why he’s flown every type of spaceship there is! Been to the Moon _twice_!” Hell, even his name sounded like it was made up by some writer: “Sir, one of our spaceships is off course and is headed straight for the Sun! Worse, it’s the ship that’s part of the Orphans and Kittens in Space Program! The only possible way to rescue them is to send up the XP-1, the new experimental prototype, but–As You Know–the XP-1 has never been tested! No one’s ever flown a ship that advanced before!” “Get me…_John Young!_” RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/3 "2018-01-07T03:55:40Z")
Yeah, I was reading about this earlier. All of the original Mercury Seven astronauts are gone, so I looked up [Group 2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_2). According Wikipedia, Borman, Lovell, McDivitt, and Stafford are still with us. I think I’ll have a corned beef sandwich in Young’s honor. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/4 "2018-01-07T06:43:37Z")
[Nitpick] Well, he walked on the moon. To be a world, doesn’t that have to be a planet like Mars? [/nitpick] RIP, John. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/5 "2018-01-07T12:55:39Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Nitpick] Well, he walked on the moon. To be a world, doesn’t that have to be a planet like Mars? [/nitpick] > > RIP, John. ☹ The broader sense of “world” used in this case is uncommon but well established. Anyway, loved MEBuckner’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/6 "2018-01-07T20:11:11Z")
I envision the first man on Mars’ first words: “Now _this_ is a world.” ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/7 "2018-01-08T13:04:35Z")
So is [this XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/893/) accurate? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/8 "2018-01-08T13:28:20Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > So is [this XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/893/) accurate? Though the graph is not finely calibrated to the single year ISTM we’re really close to the median line of the projection. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-fewer-man-who-walked-on-another-world-john-young-rip/806021/9 "2018-01-09T02:01:07Z")
[Richard Burton] In a Richard Burton voice, please. That’s the trouble with being one of the few. We keep getting Fewer.[/Richard Burton]