- Despite having a falling out with NASA management after the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986, and subsequently being moved to managerial duties, he retained his full flight status until the day he retired from NASA on the 31 December 2004, at the age of 74. He is the only astronaut from the Apollo era to have remained with the Agency for so long, completing a unique 42-year career as an astronaut.
- Only man to fly on Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle spacecraft: Pilot, Gemini 3 (1965); Commander Gemini 10 (1966); Command Module Pilot, Apollo 10 (1969); Commander, Apollo 16 (1972); Commander, STS-1 (1981); Commander, STS-9 (1983). First astronaut to achieve the record of six space flights in 1983. Two space shuttle astronauts have seven flights apiece as of June 2008; Dr Franklin Ramon Chang-Diaz and Jerry Lynn Ross.
- Moonwalker (Apollo 16, 1972).
- One of only three men to have visited the moon twice. Once from Orbit (Apollo 10) and the second time landing (Apollo 16, which he commanded). The others are Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan.
- Spacecraft Commander of STS-1, the first flight of the Space Shuttle, April 12-14, 1981, with Bob Crippen as Pilot.
- The most versatile and experienced astronaut, he has flown three types of NASA vehicles over a 16 year period. He flew Gemini 3 with Gus Grissom, Gemini 10 with Micheal Collins, Apollo 10 with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan (traveling to within 1500 meters of the lunar surface) and Apollo 16 with Charles Duke and Ken Mattingly walking/riding on the lunar surface for almost three days and flew the first test flight for the Space Shuttle.
- He was in NASA's second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell.
- He became interested in aviation as a child, making model planes. During high school he worked on a surveying team. The job took him to Titusville, Florida; he never imagined that one day he would be nearby, blasting off for the moon.
- He and Gus Grissom made the first manned Gemini mission in 1965. Unknown to NASA staff, Young smuggled a corned-beef sandwich on board, given to him by Wally Schirra. When it came time to try NASA's official space food, Young handed Grissom the sandwich as a joke. Sandwiches already had flown in space, but NASA brass and Congress considered this incident a huge embarrassment to the space program. Corned-beef sandwiches were banned from space forever after.
- He earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. He joined the Navy and served in Korea as a gunnery officer. He eventually became a Navy fighter pilot and test pilot.
- One of only three of the twelve astronauts who walked on the moon to stay with NASA and fly further space missions. The others were Apollo XII crewmates Pete Conrad and Al Bean, who each commanded one of the Skylab missions in 1973.
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