2017day.year
Richard F. Gordon Jr.
(1929 - 2017)
American naval officer, aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut
American naval officer
aviator
test pilot
and NASA astronaut
American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut who flew on Gemini and Apollo missions.
Born in Seattle in 1929, Richard F. Gordon Jr. graduated from the University of Washington before joining the U.S. Navy. He completed over 200 combat missions as a fighter pilot in Korea and became a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center. Selected by NASA in 1963, Gordon piloted Gemini 11 in 1966, executing record-setting spacewalks and docking maneuvers. He later served as command module pilot on Apollo 12, spending over 300 hours in space. After NASA, he oversaw Navy flight testing and contributed to aerospace development. Gordon retired in 1972 and died in 2017, honored for his pioneering spirit.
2017
Richard F. Gordon Jr.