 john watts young (born september 24, 1930), (capt, usn, ret.), is a retired american astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer, who became the ninth person to walk on the moon as commander of the apollo 16 mission in 1972. young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to make six space flights over the course of 42 years of active nasa service, and is the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: gemini, the apollo command/service module, the apollo lunar module, and the space shuttle. in 1965, young flew on the first manned gemini mission, and in 1969 was the first person to orbit the moon alone during apollo 10. he is one of only three people to have twice journeyed to the moon,the other two were james lovell and eugene cernan. and drove the lunar roving vehicle on the moon's surface. he also commanded two space shuttle flights, including its first launch in 1981, and served as chief of the astronaut office from 1974&ndash;1987. young retired from nasa in 2004. ==biography== ===early years and education=== young was born in san francisco, california, on september 24, 1930. at 18 months old, due to the great depression, he moved with his family to georgia, then to orlando, florida, where he attended grade school a
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