Richard Gordon

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Richard Gordon
Richard Gordon
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on October 17, 1963
(3rd NASA Group)
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		September 12, 1966
Landing of the
last space flight: 		November 24, 1969
Time in space: 13d 3h 53min
EVA inserts: 2
EVA total duration: 2h 41min
retired on January 1972
Space flights

Richard Francis "Dick" Gordon, Jr. (born October 5, 1929 in Seattle , Washington - † November 6, 2017 in San Marcos , California ) was an American astronaut .

Life

Gordon left high school in 1947 in Poulsbo , a small town 35 kilometers northwest of Seattle, and then began studying chemistry at the University of Washington . After obtaining his bachelor's degree in the summer of 1951, he was trained as a pilot by the US Navy in Pensacola ( Florida ), followed by an additional course in jet engines.

In Jacksonville, Florida, Gordon served three years with a squadron until he was accepted into the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland in early 1957 . In July 1957 his training as a test pilot was completed (one of his instructors was Alan Shepard ). As a result, he tested the F-8U “Crusader” , F-11F “Tiger” and FJ “Fury” machines at the Patuxent River naval base .

As a test pilot, Gordon brought the F-4 “Phantom II” fighter to operational readiness. With an F-4H he set a new speed record of 1,399.7 km / h in May 1961 when he covered the transcontinental route from Los Angeles to New York in just 2 hours and 47 minutes. At Naval Air Station Miramar in California, he trained naval pilots in the use of this new fighter aircraft.

In November 1962, Gordon was sent with a squadron to the Far East on the aircraft carrier " USS Ranger " . After having traveled Japan and the South China Sea , the unit arrived again in June 1963 at home port Alameda . Gordon then attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey , but did not graduate.

NASA activity

Gordon had already applied for the second astronaut group in the USA in 1962. He was invited to the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio , Texas for a week for medical examinations , spent another week in Houston at the Manned Spacecraft Center, as the JSC was then called, but was not selected. He was luckier at the next selection and was presented to the public with a dozen other candidates in October 1963.

After half a year of theoretical training, in July 1964 each of the 14 new astronauts was assigned an area for which they were responsible. Gordon was responsible for the design and arrangement of the controls on the Apollo spacecraft . To do this, he worked closely with the manufacturers' technicians.

Since September 1965 Gordon was in the replacement crew of Gemini 8 and six months later, as expected, was appointed to the flight crew of Gemini 11 . This three day mission took place in September 1966. The main task was the approach and coupling with the target satellite Agena, which succeeded to the satisfaction of all involved, as well as the two exits from the spaceship, which Gordon carried out on two consecutive days.

A year after his maiden flight, Gordon was appointed pilot of the Apollo 8 reserve crew's command module, only to be deployed in that capacity for Apollo 9 nine months later .

From March 1969, Gordon was part of the Apollo 12 flight crew as a pilot of the command module . As with his maiden flight with Gemini 11, the commander was Pete Conrad . Apollo 12 was the second manned moon landing and took place in November 1969. After the lunar module "Intrepid" had landed, Conrad entered the moon as the third and lunar module pilot Alan Bean as the fourth person. Gordon stayed aboard the command module "Yankee Clipper" throughout the mission.

On March 26, 1970, the Apollo 15 crew was announced, with Gordon as the replacement commander. Since the substitute team usually formed the main team three flights later, Richard Gordon, Vance D. Brand and Harrison Schmitt had legitimate hopes of being nominated for Apollo 18 . On September 2, 1970, this planned flight, as well as Apollo 19 and 20, was canceled by NASA.

In January 1972 Gordon left the US space agency and went first to the sport: For five years he was Vice President of the New Orleans Saints , a football club in the NFL professional league . He then headed a Texas chemical company (Energy Developers) for a short time. In 1978 he took over the management of the Resolution Engineering and Development Company for three years , which dealt with the utilization of wild oil wells. Between 1981 and 1983 he was the Los Angeles Director of Scott Science and Technology . He was also President of the Astro Sciences Corporation from 1982 .

Gordon was a second marriage and had six children.

Special features and records

  • 1966–1968 together with Pete Conrad record holder for the greatest distance from earth (1,374 km with Gemini 11 )

See also

Web links

Commons : Richard Gordon  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Goldstein: Richard Gordon, Gemini and Apollo Astronaut, Dies at 88 . New York Times , accessed November 7, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Gordon, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordon, Richard Francis Jr .; Gordon, Dick Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Seattle , Washington
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 2017
Place of death San Marcos , California