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My views on John Young flying again...
While most of the people I've spoken with agree that John Young should be assigned
another spaceflight, it seems that most of the
arguments in favor of his flying again tend to indicate that he should be "given" a
"free seat" because of all the years
that he's put into the program. I don't think I agree with that concept. The
implication seems to be that Capt. Young would only
be able to "go along for the ride." Now, I don't pretend to know what
the physical and mental requirements for mission commander or pilot are - nor do I
pretend to know if Capt. Young can meet those
requirements. But I do know that he has the experience, and the knowledge, and the
willingness to put in the hard work
necessary for a successful mission. And, if appearances are any indication, he's
capable of doing much more than filling an
unoccupied seat.
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"Survival of the species - that's what it's all about..."
John Young, Mars Society Convention
August 14, 1998
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In my opinion, John Young's 35+ years with NASA shouldn't be viewed as a reason to
give him a "free ride." He should be viewed as an asset to the space program, someone
with an enormous amount of knowledge and experience. Thirty-five years doesn't
necessarily mean that someone is ready for a gold watch - sometimes it means that
they're more valuable than they've
ever been.
People argue that NASA needs to generate more public interest if they ever hope to
progress with space exploration. Who would
be better at resurrecting the excitement of the Apollo days than John Young?
"...I'm just an ol' out-of-work lunar geologist,
and I wanna go back..."
- John Young, Mars Society Convention - August 14, 1998
He brings
believability
to the idea of humans
exploring other worlds, because he
has
walked on
another world.
He brings
credibility
, because the public knows that
his words and actions are driven not by politics and corporate pressures, but by a
genuine belief in the space program and
what it can accomplish for the good of humans all over the world.
He provides a sense of
reach-ability
- a belief that
other worlds and the stars can be within our reach.
Here is someone who has repeatedly taken it "one step further" from Gemini through
the Space Shuttle - repeatedly shown that with hard work and perseverance we can
accomplish anything we want. What better
example for today's young people?
And he brings the
excitement
-
he
lives the excitement -
and it's infectious... If you don't believe me, just go to one of his talks. Watch
the crowd as he speaks. Hang around afterwards
and listen to the comments by the people as they leave. It doesn't have to be a
scientific/space oriented crowd - Capt. Young can
turn someone with little to no interest in science into a space-program-believer in 30
minutes. So, if NASA needs some good PR -
well, his name is John Young.
"I was working on an exhibition of Moon rock at the Museum of Flight and was privileged
enough to meet John Young. When he saw that we had samples from
Apollo 16 he stopped and took a few minutes to talk with me about both
Lunar geology and the local geology around Edinburgh (I'm a geology student
who started studying geology because I was inspired by these guys,
and we told him this!!). He made a wonderful comment about his sample
gathering on the Moon: "We just ran around grabbing everything we could
as quick as we could".
He is the nicest guy you ever met, and NASA
couldn't have a better ambassador."
Stuart Forbes
Scotland
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I have no idea if Capt. Young is even interested in flying again, but... It seems to me
that he is more than capable of playing a
useful - no, a
valuable
- role on a space mission.
So,
yes, I think Capt. Young should get another flight; not because he should be repayed for
what he's done in the past, but because
of what he can accomplish for us now - because
we still need
him.
"At a time when America
desperately needs her
heroes, John Young stands
among the tallest and best."
- Ronald J. Wilson
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