John Young ( astronaut ) John Watts Young ( born September 24 , 1930 ) is a retired American astronaut , Naval officer , 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 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 persons who twice journeyed to the Moon , 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 – 1987 . Young retired from NASA in 2004 . Biography . Early years . Young was born in San Francisco , California , in 1930 . At 18 months old , due to the Great Depression , he moved with his family to Orlando , Florida , where he attended grade and later Orlando High School until graduation in 1948 . Young earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 ; while attending , he became a member of the national military honor society Scabbard and Blade and Sigma Chi fraternity . Navy career . After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 , Young entered the United States Navy . He served as fire control officer on the destroyer USS " Laws " until June 1953 and completed a tour in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War . He was sent to flight training and was assigned to Fighter Squadron 103 ( VF - 103 ) for four years , flying F - 9 Cougar s from the USS " Coral Sea " and F - 8 Crusader s from USS " Forrestal " . After training at the U . S . Naval Test Pilot School in 1959 , Young was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River , Maryland for three years . His test projects included evaluations of the XF8U - 3 Crusader III and F - 4 Phantom II fighter weapons systems . In 1962 , he set world time - to - climb records to 3 , 000 - meter and 25 , 000 - meter altitudes in the Phantom , and was maintenance officer of Fighter Squadron 143 ( VF - 143 ) . Young retired from the Navy as a Captain in September 1976 , after completing 25 years of active military service . NASA career . Gemini flights . Joining NASA in 1962 , Young was the first of the Astronaut Group 2 to fly in space . ( He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot of Gemini 3 when Alan Shepard , the original commander , was grounded ) . Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Gus Grissom in 1965 , Young scored another space " first " by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft — a feat for which he was reprimanded . Young then trained as backup pilot for Gemini 6A , but after the " sandwich episode " , for a time it seemed that NASA was not sure what to do with him . Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to Apollo , while other astronauts such as Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper were sidelined for lesser infractions . The assignment of Ed White , the Gemini 7 backup commander , to Apollo created an opening for Young as commander of Gemini 10 in 1966 . The mission performed the first dual rendezvous with two Agena target vehicle s ; and his pilot , Michael Collins , performed two spacewalks . Apollo flights . In 1966 , Young was assigned to an Apollo crew with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan . This crew was assigned as backup to the second manned Apollo mission , planned before the Apollo 1 fire . After the fire , both crews were assigned to the first actual manned mission , Apollo 7 which flew in October 1968 . In May 1969 , this crew flew to the Moon on Apollo 10 . While Stafford and Cernan flew the Lunar Module in lunar orbit for the first time , Young flew the Command Module solo . Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by any manned vehicle at during its return to Earth on May 26 , 1969 . Young was backup commander of Apollo 13 , the troubled mission in which the Moon landing was aborted because of an explosion in the Service Module . He had a central role in rescuing the Apollo 13 crew by participating in the team that developed procedures to stretch the LM consumables and reactivate the Command Module systems prior to re - entry . By rotation , Young became commander of Apollo 16 , and was an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the mission . Apollo 16 ' s lunar landing was almost aborted at the last moment when a malfunction was detected in the SPS engine control system in the service module . On the surface , he took three moonwalks in the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke on April 21 , 22 and 23 , 1972 ( making Young the ninth person to walk on the surface of the Moon ) , while Ken Mattingly flew the Command Module in lunar orbit . Young set a speed record with the Lunar Rover . He carried with him the badge and flag of the Sigma Chi fraternity , now on display at Sigma Chi ' s headquarters in Evanston , Illinois . Young ' s final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander for Cernan on Apollo 17 , after Cernan injured his knee playing softball a few months before the flight . Had the injury been more severe , Cernan would have been medically dropped from the flight and Young would have commanded the last two Apollo Moon landings . A close confidant of Johnson Space Center ( JSC ) official George Abbey , in January 1973 Young was made Chief of the Space Shuttle Branch of the Astronaut Office . In January 1974 , he became Chief of the Astronaut Office after the retirement of Alan Shepard . Young was openly critical of NASA management following the " Challenger " disaster , and in April 1987 was made Special Assistant to JSC Director Aaron Cohen for Engineering , Operations and Safety . NASA denied that his criticism triggered the move . In February 1996 , he was assigned as Associate Director ( Technical ) JSC . Space Shuttle flights . Young flew two missions of the Space Shuttle , including commanding the program ' s 1981 maiden orbital flight , STS - 1 , and STS - 9 in 1983 , which carried the first Spacelab module . He was in line to make a record seventh flight on STS - 61 - J to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope in 1986 , but the " Challenger " disaster earlier that year had delayed NASA ' s schedule . Retirement . Young worked for NASA for 42 years and announced his retirement on December 7 , 2004 . He retired on December 31 , 2004 , at the age of 74 , but continued to attend the Monday Morning Meeting at the Astronaut Office at JSC for several years . On April 12 , 2006 , Young appeared at the 25th anniversary of the STS - 1 launch at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex , along with pilot Robert Crippen . The two spoke of their experiences during the flight . In 2012 Young published an autobiography , " Forever Young " . Personal life . Young married Barbara White and had two children with her , Sandra and John , but they were divorced in 1972 after 16 years . He later married Susy Feldman , and lives in the Houston suburb of El Lago , Texas . Media portrayals . In the 1995 film , " Apollo 13 " , Young was played by Ben Marley . In the 1998 TV miniseries , " From the Earth to the Moon " , he was played by John Posey . Young is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary film and book , " In the Shadow of the Moon " ; the Discovery Channel series , " " ; and the documentary film , " The Wonder of It All " .