Who has made the most space flights?

John Young is the famous commander of the first flight of the U.S. space shuttle and the oldest astronaut in the United States. But little is known about his aerospace career, in which he devoted his youth to the aerospace industry.

On March 23, 1985, at the 20th anniversary celebration of John Young’s first space flight held at the Houston Space Center in the United States, people learned that he had a 20-year aerospace career.

John Young was born in San Francisco, California, on September 34, 1930, and spent his childhood in Orlando. His first space flight was on March 23, 1965. He and his companion Virgil Grissom piloted the "Gemini" 3. This second-generation spacecraft has a similar appearance to the first-generation "Mercury" spacecraft. , consisting of three parts: the crew room, the power room, and the mechanical room. It weighs 3.2 tons and is about 5.7 meters long. It is conical in shape, with a bottom diameter of about 3 meters and a top diameter of about 1 meter. John Young and his partners drove this spacecraft to create He set a record for a two-person space travel by the United States, flying around the earth three times in 4 hours and 53 minutes. He became a news figure at the time and was featured in newspapers, radio and television stations. Since then, John Young has been active in the aerospace field of the United States. On July 18, 1966, he and Collins piloted the "Gemini 10" spacecraft and flew 43 times around the earth. It took a total of 70 hours and 47 minutes to successfully complete the mission. The Earth successfully docked with the Agena satellite and retrieved a box for collecting micrometeoroids from the satellite. Once again became a newsmaker in American newspapers.

The most memorable are John Young's two world-famous "Apollo" project flights. The first time was on May 18, 1969, when John Young and two other astronauts piloted the Apollo 10 spacecraft to take off from the Kennedy Space Center. After a flight of 75 hours and 56 minutes, it entered the perilunar point 11 kilometers away. The lunar point is 315 kilometers in orbit around the moon. During the 61.6-hour flight around the moon, Commander Stafford and Cernan entered the lunar module, separated from the mother ship, ignited the descent rocket, and flew in the lunar module to a place only 14.3 kilometers away from the moon. The Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon for close aerial reconnaissance and took photos of the landing position. John Young served as the command module pilot for this flight. The lunar module successfully separated from the mother ship 8 hours after it separated from the command module. docking. On May 26, 1969, "Apollo" 10 landed safely near the Samoa Islands, with a total flight time of 192 hours and 3 minutes. The second time was on April 16, 1972, when "Apollo 16" took off from the Kennedy Space Center. John Young served as the spacecraft commander, Mattingly served as the command module pilot, and Duke served as the lunar module pilot. During this flight, they drove the lunar module to the moon near the "Descartes Crater" located in the central highlands of the moon, using the lunar rover worth $8 million three times. It explored the lunar surface for 20 hours and 15 minutes, stayed on the lunar surface for 71 hours and 3 minutes, and brought back 95.5 kilograms of lunar rocks. He made significant contributions to the mysteries of human landing on the moon and exploration of the moon.

Nine years later, John Young, who had reached the age of 18, was honored as commander of the maiden flight of the US space shuttle Columbia, and he and Robert Crippin piloted the space shuttle on April 12, 1981. The aircraft makes its world-famous around-the-world flight from the Kennedy Space Center. People were all excited about this historic achievement. Congratulatory messages from various countries poured in, and various newspapers and periodicals reported on it. John Young and the space shuttle became famous all over the world and were included in the history of manned spaceflight. On November 28, 1983, six astronauts including John Young, Parker and German expert Merbold entered space on the space shuttle. John Young and his partners worked together to launch the 17-ton European Sky Laboratory for the first time, conduct space experiments, create alloys that cannot be made on earth, and take high-resolution images of earth resources. The photo set a record of 10 days and 8 hours of flight for the space shuttle. It accomplished the flight and experimental tasks of the space shuttle very well and was once again favored by people. Being an astronaut is not a comfortable and easy task. It requires long-term and demanding training in various conventional and special physical strength, intelligence, flight physiology and basic theory.

In order to fly the space shuttle, John Young and Robert Crippin began to receive comprehensive training in January 1978. In addition to taking 25 hours of aeronautics and astronomy courses every week, they also had to read 21 volumes of the space shuttle. The operating instructions, a navigation manual, were frequently revised, so much so that the mimeographed speeches accumulated in his office were 2.5 feet thick. In order to experience the flying experience of a giant aircraft, although John Young has 12,000 hours of experience in flying aircraft, he also spent a lot of time flying a Boeing 707 aircraft, flying a Mexican aircraft equipped with reverse thrusters and transverse pressure generators, and doing internships Tricky landing. In order to familiarize themselves with the various switches and five electronic computers in the space shuttle, he and Crippin practiced for more than 1,200 hours in the space shuttle simulation cabin, to the point of obsession.

John Young's entry into the aerospace industry is related to his close relationship with the aviation industry. He loved playing with model airplanes as a child and was a linebacker on the Orlando High School football team. After graduating from high school, he entered Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering with honors. He entered the U.S. Navy in June 1952 and immediately applied to study at flight school. But it was delayed for more than a year for some reason. In January 1955, he was assigned to serve in the 103rd Flight Squadron of the Naval Air Base. He has since served as a test pilot at a naval air station or center. During this period, he set flight records twice. One was on March 3, 1962 at the Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine, setting a world record of ascent of 3,000 meters in 34.523 seconds. One time was in April 1962, when he set a world record of ascending 7,620 meters in 230.14 seconds at the Magna Naval Air Station. Because of this glorious aviation experience, in April 1962, when NASA openly recruited "Gemini" ” and the Apollo spacecraft astronauts were selected. The selection conditions at that time were: a height of no more than 1.83 meters, an age of under 35, a degree in physics, biology or engineering, and flight experience as a jet test pilot. John Young, who was only 32 years old at the time, was 1.75 meters tall and 50 centimeters wide at the shoulders. One of 63 people selected from 200 applicants. After further examination and screening, another half were eliminated, leaving 32 people. Subsequently, after inspection and evaluation by the Houston Manned Flight Center, 9 people were finally selected, including 2 non-military personnel and 7 military personnel. John Young is the brightest among them. In September 1962, John Young officially entered the Houston Aerospace Group No. 2 and began his long aerospace career. When looking back at his career, John Young said with mixed feelings: I didn't expect that in just 20 years, a reusable space shuttle would make regular flights to space. It is a pity that the United States has not made greater progress, has no space station, and has not established a base on the moon. He hopes that one day America will be able to do these things. This is the voice of the veteran American astronauts, and perhaps the wish of all mankind.