Personal: Born April 3, 1926, Mitchell, Indiana.
Died January 27, 1967, in the Apoll0 204 fire at Cape Kennedy.
Was married, two children.
Education: B.S. in mechanical engineering, Purdue University, 1950.
Spaceflights: Command pilot, Mercury-Redstone 4 (1961) and Gemini 3 (1965).
Was chosen with the first group of astronauts in 1959. Was pilot for Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), a suborbital flight, command pilot for Gemini 3, backup command pilot for Gemini 6, and had been selected as commander of the first Apollo flight at the time of his death.
Personal: Born February 15, 1935, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Died January 27, 1967, in the Apollo 204 fire at Cape Kennedy.
Was married, two children.
Education: B.S. in aeronautical engineering, Purdue University, 1957.
Spaceflights: None.
Chosen in the third group of astronauts in 1963. Had been selected as lunar module pilot for the first Apollo flight.
Personal: Born March 12, 1923, Hackensack, New Jersey. Married,
two children.
Education: B.S., U.S. Naval Academy, 1945.
Spaceflights: Pilot, Mercury-Atlas 8 (1962). Command pilot, Gemini 6 (1965).
Commander, Apollo 7 (1968).
Chosen in the first group of astronauts in 1959. Was backup pilot for MercuryAtlas 7 (Aurora 7), pilot of Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7), backup command pilot of Gemini 3, command pilot of Gemini 6, and commander of Apollo 7. Retired from NASA and the Navy in July 1969 to become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Control Company, Englewood, Colorado, and Chairman, Sernco, Inc. Became Director of Marketing-Powerplant and Aerospace Systems, Johns Manville Company, and Vice President, Johns Manville Corporation, in Denver, Colorado, both in 1976. Resigned those positions in December 1977 to become Vice President for Development for Goodwin Companies in Middleton, Colorado. Elected to the Board of Directors of Electromedics Inc. in 1980. Currently an aerospace consultant in Rancho Sante Fe, California.
Personal: Born June 23, 1930, Columbus, Ohio. Died
December 2, 1987, Tokyo, Japan, from a heart attack.
Was married, five children (four from a previous marriage).
Education: B.S., U.S. Naval Academy, 1952. M.S. in astronautics,
Air Force Institute of Technology, 1960.
Spaceflights: Command module pilot, Apollo 7 (1968).
Chosen with the third group of astronauts in 1963. Was command module pilot of Apollo 7 and backup command module pilot for Apollo 10. Left the astronaut corps in June 1970 to become Technical Assistant (Manned Flight) at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Retired from NASA and the Air Force in July 1972 to become Peace Corps Director in Thailand. Was with the Oppenheimer Co., Inc. investment firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida at the time of his death.
Personal: Born March 16, 1932, Creston, Iowa. Married, two children.
Education: B.A., 1960, and M.A., 1961, both in physics from
the University of California, Los Angeles.
Spaceflights: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 7 (1968).
Flew as an aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps before attending UCLA. Chosen with the third group of astronauts in 1963. Resigned from NASA in August 1971 to become President of the HydroTech Development Company in Houston. Was Senior Vice President/ Director of Engineering, 3D International, Houston, Texas from December 1976 to October 1979. Was a partner with the Capital Group in Houston, and is now President, Acorn Ventures, Inc., and Managing General Partner, the Genesis Fund, Houston. His book, The All-American Boys, offers his views on the astronaut program.
Personal: Born March 14, 1928, Gary, Indiana. Married, two children.
Education: B.S., U.S. Military Academy, 1950. M.S. in
aeronautical engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1957.
Spaceflights: Command pilot, Gemini 7 (1965). Commander, Apollo 8 (1965).
Chosen with the second group of astronauts in 1962. Served as backup command pilot for Gemini 4, command pilot for Gemini 7, and commander of Apollo 8. Became Field Director of NASA's Long-Term Space Station Program in May 1969. Resigned from NASA and the Air Force on July 1, 1970 to become Senior Vice President, Operations Group, Eastern Airlines. Served as Eastern's President and Vice Chairman, Texas Air Corporation. Resigned from Eastern, and is now President and Chief Executive Officer of Patlex Corp., Las Cruces, New Mexico. Has written a book entitled Countdown.
Personal: Born March 25, 1928, Cleveland, Ohio.
Education: B.S., U.S. Naval Academy, 1952.
Spaceflights: Pilot, Gemini 7 (1965). Command pilot, Gemini 12 (1966).
Command module pilot, Apollo 8 (1968). Commander, Apollo 13 (1970).
Chosen with the second group of astronauts in 1962. Was backup pilot for Gemini 4, pilot of Gemini 7, backup command pilot for Gemini 9, command pilot for Gemini 12, command module pilot of Apollo 8, backup commander for Apollo 11, and commander of Apollo 13. Became Deputy Director of Science and Applications at the Johnson Space Center in May 1971. Left NASA and the Navy in March 1973 to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bay-Houston Towing Company, but resigned that position on January 1,1977, to become President of Fisk Telephone Systems in Houston. On January 1, 1981, he became Group Vice President of Centel Corporation, and was later promoted to Executive Vice President. Currently, President, Lovell Communications, Lake Forest, Illinois.
Personal: Born October 17, 1933, Hong Kong. Married, six children.
Education: B.S., U.S. Naval Academy, 1955. M.S. in nuclear
engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, 1962.
Spaceflights: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 8 (1968).
Chosen with the third group of astronauts in 1963. Was backup pilot for Gemini 11 and lunar module pilot for Apollo 8. Resigned from NASA and the Air Force (active duty) in September 1969 and became Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. Joined the Atomic Energy Commission in 1973, and became chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1974. Named U.S. Ambassador to Norway in 1976. Later worked as a Vice-President of General Electric and then as Senior Executive Vice President-Operations, Textron, Inc. Retired as Chief Executive Officer of General Dynamics in 1993, but remains Chairman of the Board.
Personal: Born June 10, 1929, Chicago, Illinois.
Education: B.S. in aeronautical engineering, University of
Michigan, 1959.
Spaceflights: Command pilot, Gemini 4 (1965). Commander, Apollo 9 (1969).
Chosen in the second group of astronauts in 1962. Was command pilot of Gemini 4 and commander of Apollo 9. Managed the Apollo Spacecraft Program at Johnson Space Center from September 1969 to August 1972, and then resigned from NASA and the Air Force. Joined Pullman, Inc., of Chicago Illinois in 1975, and served as Vice President, President-Pullman Standard, and Executive Vice President, in that order. Resigned from Pullman on January 31, 1981, to become Vice President, Strategic Management, Rockwell International, Pittsburgh. Currently Senior Vice President, Government and International Operations, Rockwell International Corp., Washington, D.C.
Personal: Born October 25, 1935, Neptune, New Jersey.
Divorced, five children.
Education: B.S. in aeronautical engineering, 1956 and M.S.
in aeronautics/astronautics, 1963, both from MIT.
Spaceflights: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 9 (1969).
Served in the U.S Air Force as an aviator, and was chosen with the third group of astronauts in 1963. Was lunar module pilot on Apollo 9 and backup commander for Skylab 2. Was NASA's Director of User Affairs in the Office of Applications before becoming Assistant for Payload Operations in the Office of Planning and Program Integration in November 1976. Took a leave of absence from NASA to act as science adviser to Governor Brown of California, then resigned from NASA in 1979. Became Chairman of the California State Energy Commission in August 1980, and was later a visiting scientist at the MIT. Served as President of the Association of Space Explorers. Currently President, NRS Communications, Tiburon, California, and President, Courier Satellite Services, San Francisco.
Cernan was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 14, 1934. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the US. Naval Postgraduate School. Cernan was selected as a member of the third group of astronauts in October 1963. He and Gemini 6 veteran Thomas Stafford were assigned to the Gemini 9 backup crew but became the prime crew when Elliot See and Charles Bassett were killed in an aircraft accident in February 1966. Gemini 9 was launched on June 3, 1966. During their three-day flight, Stafford and Cernan performed three separate rendezvous with an unmanned target vehicle. Cernan also performed NASA's second spacewalk, spending two hours outside the spacecraft. As he discusses in his Apollo 17 commentary, the difficulties he experienced demonstrated the need for handholds, footholds, and a high-capacity spacesuit cooling system. After Gemini 9, Cernan served as backup pilot for Gemini 12; and, then, he and Stafford were joined by Gemini 3 and 10 veteran John Young as the backup crew for Apollo 7. In the normal course of crew rotation, they became the prime crew of Apollo 10, with Cernan assigned as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP). Apollo 10 was the final rehearsal for the historic first landing and was flown to check out all spacecraft systems and procedures. Stafford and Cernan flew the lunar module Snoopy on virtually the same trajectory that Armstrong and Aldrin took two months later. They flew down to 47,000 feet before discarding the LM Descent Stage and flying back out to a rendezvous with Young. Following Apollo 10, Cernan was assigned to the Apollo 14 backup crew as Commander, with Ron Evans as Command Module Pilot and Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. By the time Apollo 14 was flown, Cernan had become the first and only Apollo astronaut to have trained as both an LMP and as a Commander. Following Apollo 17, Cernan helped in the planning for Apollo-Soyuz and acted for the program manager as the senior U.S. representative in discussions with the U.S.S.R. He resigned from the Navy and from NASA on July 1, 1976, and has kept very busy ever since as a consultant in the energy and aerospace businesses and as a television commentator.
Personal: Born March 25, 1928, Cleveland, Ohio.
Education: B.S., U.S. Naval Academy, 1952.
Spaceflights: Pilot, Gemini 7 (1965). Command pilot, Gemini 12 (1966).
Command module pilot, Apollo 8 (1968). Commander, Apollo 13 (1970).
Chosen with the second group of astronauts in 1962. Was backup pilot for Gemini 4, pilot of Gemini 7, backup command pilot for Gemini 9, command pilot for Gemini 12, command module pilot of Apollo 8, backup commander for Apollo 11, and commander of Apollo 13. Became Deputy Director of Science and Applications at the Johnson Space Center in May 1971. Left NASA and the Navy in March 1973 to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bay-Houston Towing Company, but resigned that position on January 1,1977, to become President of Fisk Telephone Systems in Houston. On January 1, 1981, he became Group Vice President of Centel Corporation, and was later promoted to Executive Vice President. Currently, President, Lovell Communications, Lake Forest, Illinois.
Personal: Born November 14, 1933, Biloxi, Mississippi.
Married, four children (by a previous marriage).
Education: B.S. in aeronautical engineering, University of
Oklahoma, 1959.
Spaceflights: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 13 (1970).
Served as an aviator in both the U.S Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force, and was chosen in the fifth group of astronauts in 1966. Was backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, lunar module pilot for Apollo 13, and backup commander for Apollo 16. Served as Landing and EVA-2 CapCom for Apollo 14. Commanded one of the two crews that flew shuttle approach and landing tests. Had been selected as commander of one of the four shuttle orbital flight tests, but resigned from NASA on June 29, 1979 and is currently President, Technical Services Division, Grumman Corp., Titusville, Florida.