Mission is over for top astronaut

Published on Wednesday 8 December 2004 13:04

THE longest serving astronaut in history, who flew twice to the moon and commanded the first space shuttle mission, has announced his retirement after 42 years at Nasa.

John Young, 74, announced his plans to leave the space agency on December 31.

Mr Young was the first human to fly in space six times and the only astronaut to pilot four different spacecraft. He flew in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs.

Mr Young joined Nasa in 1962. His first mission was in 1965 as a pilot of the first manned flight of the Gemini program. He went on to command the Gemini 10 in 1966, followed by his orbit of the moon in the Apollo Command Module in 1969. He went back to the moon in 1972.

In 1981, Mr Young commanded Columbia during the first space shuttle mission. His final space mission came in 1983, when he again commanded Columbia.

Mr Young worked as chief of the agency’s astronaut office for more than a dozen years and as an assistant and associate director of the Johnson Space Centre for eight years.

"He is the astronaut’s astronaut, a hero among heroes who fly in space," said Jefferson Howell, director of the Johnson Space Centre.