John Young, 1965. He was approximately my age (34) in this Life magazine photo.
Happy birthday to Floridian badass and originator of the Blue Steel, John Young! John and his tousled hair are both 81 years old today.
Here’s a short list of things John Watts Young has accomplished in his time on the planet:
- Flew on Gemini 3 with Gus “I Am A Total Badass” Grissom (1965);
- Flew on Gemini 10 with Mike Collins, the original space hipster (1966);
- Flew on Apollo 10 with his bros Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan (1969);
- Flew on Apollo 16 with Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke, and walked on the FREAKIN’ MOON (1972); and
- Flew the space shuttle twice like a boss (STS-1 in 1981 and STS-9/Spacelab 1 in 1983).
He also probably made that particle or whatever go faster than the speed of light, but he’s too humble to take any credit for it. At any rate…the day belongs to John Young.
Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. In January 2019, Emily’s This Space Available blog was incorporated into the National Space Society’s blog. The content of Emily’s blog can be accessed via the This Space Available blog category.
Note: The views expressed in This Space Available are those of the author and should not be considered as representing the positions or views of the National Space Society.
