Cargo ship bound to the space station named for the walker on the moon, John Young

The first NASA astronaut to fly six times in space (seven if it counts his launch since the moon) and to order four different types of spacecraft will add one more vehicle to his active, if only by name.

John Young, who walked on the Moon on Apollo 16 and led the inaugural flight of the Space Shuttle Program, was chosen as the posthumous namesake of Northrop Grumman's next cargo ship Cygnus for the replenishment of the Space Station. international. Young died in January at the age of 87.

"We are delighted to announce that the Cygnus Space Shuttle for our tenth cargo replenishment mission to the International Space Station is named after John Young, an accomplished Naval Officer, test pilot, and astronaut. NASA, "read a statement released Wednesday (October 24). ) from Northrop Grumman on Twitter. [How John Young Smuggled a Corned-Beef Sandwich into Space]

SS John Young is scheduled to launch Northrop Grumman's Antares 230 rocket from Pad 0A at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA Base no later than 15 November. The unarmed spacecraft Cygnus will be unloaded from its cargo and reloaded waste by the space station team before being released from the outpost into orbit to deploy three satellites and then perform a destructive return to the Earth 's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

John Young, the namesake of the spacecraft, was part of the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962. He served as a pilot in Gemini 3, the first mission of the spacecraft two-seater in 1965, then aboard the Gemini 10 in 1966. Third mission, Young became the first person to orbit the Moon as a command module pilot on Apollo 10 in 1969.

Young became the ninth person to march on the moon as commander of Apollo 16 in 1972. Nine years later, he led STS-1, the first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. His last assignment was as Commander of STS-9, also aboard the Columbia, with the first Spacelab module of European construction.

In total, Young spent 34 days, 19 hours and 39 minutes in space. He is the only astronaut to have participated in the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions.

S. John Young will be the first Cygnus spacecraft to be launched since Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK in June. The tradition of naming cargo vehicles began with the predecessor of Orbital ATK, Orbital Sciences. The most recent Cygnus, which was moored at the Space Station from May to July, was named S.S. J.R. Thompson, named after the president and chief operating officer of this company.

The other ships were named in memory of astronauts David Low, Gordon Fullerton, Janice Voss, Deke Slayton, Rick Husband, Alan Poindexter, John Glenn and Gene Cernan.

S. John Young's NG-10 mission is an extension of Northrop Grumman's contract under NASA's Commercial Replenishment Services (CRS) program. The flight will deliver supplies worth 7,605 pounds (3,450 kilograms) to the space station.

The contract with CRS entitles Northrop Grumman to perform 11 Cygnus missions, with logistics, crew supplies and research equipment totaling approximately 30,000 kg (66,000 pounds) to the space station. The first Cygnus CRS mission was completed in 2014. Under a subsequent contract, Northrop Grumman will provide at least six additional replenishment missions, carrying an additional 20,000 kg cargo to the in-orbit laboratory.

In addition to the Cygnus, Young also gave his name to a section of Florida State Road 423, named John Young Parkway in his honor. The control facility that NASA will use to launch its next generation Space Launch System (SLS) was named Young-Crippen Firing Room in 2006, in the honor of Young and his teammate STS- 1.

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