John Watts Young (September 24, 1930 – January 5, 2018) was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer.

Before becoming an astronaut, Young received his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and joined the U.S. Navy.

[4]: 277  In 1952, Young graduated second in his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy on June 6, 1952.

In January 1959, Young was selected to be in Class 23 at the United States Naval Test Pilot School and returned home from deployment.

They conducted their preflight system checkout ahead of schedule but had to delay the launch after there was a leak in an oxidizer line in the Titan II GLV.

[7]: 223 [8] Twenty minutes into flight, Young recognized multiple anomalous system readings and determined that there might be issues with the instrument power supply.

After the parachutes deployed, the crew shifted the capsule to its landing orientation, which caused both of them to be thrown forward into the windshield and damaged the faceplates on their helmets.

[1]: 82–83  After the flight, it was discovered that Young had smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard, which he and Grissom shared while testing food.

The House Committee on Appropriations launched a hearing regarding the incident, and some members argued that the two astronauts had disrupted the scheduled food test.

[7]: 265  On January 24, 1966, Young and Michael Collins were assigned as the Gemini 10 commander and pilot, with Alan L. Bean and Clifton C. Williams Jr. as the backup crew.

The higher-than-expected fuel consumption during the midcourse corrections caused flight director Glynn Lunney to cancel planned additional docking practice once the capsule had completed its rendezvous.

Using the Agena's engines, Gemini 10 maneuvered to a 294 × 763 km (183 × 474 mi) elliptical orbit, which set a new altitude record for a crewed vehicle at the apogee.

Collins performed a standup extravehicular activity (EVA) where he stood at the door of the Gemini capsule to photograph the southern Milky Way to study its ultraviolet radiation.

The capsule landed 5.4 km (3.4 mi) from their recovery ship, USS Guadalcanal, in the western Atlantic Ocean on July 21, 1966, at 4:07 p.m. After the crew was recovered and aboard the ship, flight controllers completed several burns on the Agena target vehicle to put it in a 352 km (219 mi) circular orbit to be used as a target for future missions.

Apollo 10 completed one midcourse correction, and Young performed the retrograde maneuver to bring the spacecraft into orbit 110 km (68 mi) above the lunar surface.

The lunar module crew tested the abort guidance system but had accidentally changed its setting from "attitude hold" to "automatic".

They conducted field work at the Mono craters in California to learn how to identify lava domes and tuff and the Sudbury Basin to study breccia.

After the spacecraft reached Earth orbit, several problems developed with the S-IVB attitude control system, but Apollo 16 was still able to perform its trans-lunar injection burn.

[12] The two astronauts conducted a seismic experiment using pneumatic hammers[18] and began a traverse to Flag crater, which was 1.4 km (0.87 mi) west of the landing site.

The command module completed its trans-Earth injection burn and began its flight back to Earth, during which time Mattingly performed an EVA to recover film from the exterior cameras and conduct an experiment on microbe exposure to ultraviolet sunlight.

The command module (CM) reentered the atmosphere on April 27 and landed in the ocean approximately 350 km (220 mi) southeast of Christmas Island, and the crew was recovered aboard the USS Ticonderoga.

At the time, the overall Space Shuttle specifications and manufacturers had been determined, and Young's role was to serve as a liaison for the astronauts to provide design input.

[1]: 221 In March 1978, Young was selected by George W. S. Abbey, then deputy director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC), to be the commander of STS-1, with Robert L. Crippen flying as the pilot.

[30]: III-24 As the chief of the Astronaut Office, Young recommended the crews that flew on the subsequent test and operational Space Shuttle missions.

[28]: 2–9 [30]: III-44  It carried the first Spacelab module into orbit, and the crew had to conduct a shift-based schedule to maximize on-orbit research in astronomy, atmospheric and space physics, and life sciences.

Young tested a new portable onboard computer, and attempted to photograph Russian airfields as Columbia orbited overhead.

[2][31]: 189  Young had been scheduled to fly as the commander of STS-61-J to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the mission was canceled as a result of the Challenger disaster.

[32] In May 1987, Young was replaced as the chief of the Astronaut Office by Daniel C. Brandenstein and was reassigned as Special Assistant to Johnson Space Center Director Aaron Cohen for Engineering, Operations and Safety.

[1]: 295  He oversaw the redesign of the solid rocket boosters to prevent a repeat of the Challenger disaster and advocated for the strengthening of the thermal protection tiles at the chin-section of the orbiters.

[6] Following his retirement, Young worked as a public speaker, and advocated for the importance of asteroid impact avoidance, colonization of the Moon, and climate engineering.