Thomas P. Stafford
General Stafford was the commander of the Apollo 10 “dress rehearsal” mission preparing for the first Moon landing.
Quick Facts
Stafford served as the Chairman of the Operations Oversight Committee of the first Hubble Telescope Spacecraft Servicing and Repair Mission that corrected the design and manufacturing defect of the instrument.
General Stafford was selected among the second group of astronauts in September 1962 to participate in Projects Gemini and Apollo.
He was the Apollo commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission in 1975, a joint space flight culminating in the first meeting in space between American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts, which ended the International space race.
Biography
Thomas P. Stafford
General Stafford was selected among the second group of astronauts in September 1962 to participate in Projects Gemini and Apollo.
In December 1965, he piloted Gemini VI the first rendezvous in space, and helped develop techniques to prove the basic theory and practicality of space rendezvous.
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Gemini VI
Gemini VI-A was the fifth crewed Earth-orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series, having been launched after Gemini VII, with the intent of making rendezvous with Gemini VII in Earth orbit.
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Gemini IX
The mission, originally designated Gemini IX, was renamed Gemini IX-A after the original May 17, 1966, launch date was scrubbed. On June 3, Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan…
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Apollo 10
The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around…
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The Apollo-Soyuz Mission
Soyuz Launch: July 15, 1975, at 8:20 a.m. EDTLaunch Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, KazakhstanFlight Crew: Alexey A. Leonov, Valery N. KubasovLanding:…
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