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Biography
NASA Career
Stafford, Young, Cernan Named Apollo X Crew
Reprinted from the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Roundup
- November 22, 1968
Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young
and Eugene A. Cernan have been assigned as prime crewmen for the Apollo
X mission, scheduled for the second quarter of 1969.
Apollo X is planned as the second manned flight of the
lunar module. The mission possibilities for Apollo X range from Earth orbital
operations to a lunar orbit flight.
The backup crew consists of Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper,
Donn F. Eisele and Edgar D. Mitchell. Flight crew support team members
are Astronauts Joe H. Engle, James B. Irwin and Charles M. Duke, Jr.
The crew is training for a lunar orbit mission in which
the complete Apollo spacecraft - command and service modules and the lunar
module - will be flown. However, if an earlier Apollo mission must be repeated
or plans are changed, the crew will be prepared for the complete range
of Apollo missions.
Apollo X will be launched by a Saturn V into low Earth
orbit. In the case of the most forward mission, at the end of the second
or third orbit, the third stage of the Saturn V will be reignited to place
the space vehicle on a trajectory to the Moon. The command and service
module will separate from the third stage and the spacecraft lunar module
adapter panels will be jettisoned.
The command and service module then will dock with the
lunar module and extract it from the rocket stage. The combined spacecraft
modules will continue to the Moon and enter an orbit around the Moon.
Spacecraft Commander Stafford and Lunar Module Pilot Cernan
will enter the lunar module, detach it from the command and service modules,
descend to approximately 50,000 feet above the Moon's surface, then return
to the orbiting command and service module. The lunar module will be left
in orbit around the Moon and the crew will return to Earth in the command
module.
The Apollo X prime crew served as the backup crew for
Apollo VII.
Stafford, 38, an Air Force colonel, was the pilot of Gemini
6 in December, 1965, and the command pilot of Gemini IX in June, 1966.
He has logged more than 98 hours of spaceflight.
Young, 38, is a Navy commander. He was the pilot of Gemini
III, the first manned flight in that progam in March, 1965, and he was
the command pilot of Gemini X in July, 1966. He has more than 75 1/2 hours
of spaceflight.
Cernan, 34, a Navy commander, flew with Stafford in Gemini
IX, during which he became the second American to "walk in space." His
spaceflight time totals more than 72 hours.
Cooper, 41, an Air Force colonel, commands the backup
crew. One of the original seven United States astronauts, he flew the last
mission in the Mercury program, MA-9, in May, 1963, and he was command
pilot of Gemini V in August, 1965. He has more than 225 hours in space.
Eisele, 38, is an Air Force lieutenant colonel. He was
command module pilot on the 11-day Apollo VII flight last month. He has
the same assignment on the Apollo X backup crew.
Mitchell, 38, as Navy commander, has not yet flown in
space. Prior to his assignment as backup LM pilot for Apollo X, he was
a member of the astronaut support team for Apollo VIII.
None of the Apollo X support team has flown in a spacecraft,
although Engle, 36, has earned Air Force astronaut wings by piloting the
X-15 experimental rocket aircraft to an altitude of more than 50 miles.
Major Engle was a test pilot in the X-15 program prior to becoming a NASA
astronaut.
Irwin, 38, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, participated
in several altitude chamber tests which helped qualify the LM for manned
flight.
Duke, 33, is an Air Force major. He has had technical
responsibilities in launch vehicle and crew safety areas.
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