Dick Gordon RIP

[GordonD]

Sad to report the death of former astronaut Dick Gordon on 6 November, at the age of 88.

 

Gordon was selected as part of NASA's Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963. He made two spaceflights: as Pilot on Gemini XI in September 1966, when he performed two EVAs, then as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 12 in November 1969, remaining in orbit while his colleagues made the second lunar landing. He would have flown a third time, as Commander of Apollo 18, but that mission was cancelled due to budget cuts. He logged a total of 315 hours 53 minutes in space.

[Eric Mc]

Another gone. The astronauts' office up above is beginning to get a bit crowded.

[GordonD]

1 hour ago, Eric Mc said:

Another gone. The astronauts' office up above is beginning to get a bit crowded.

Indeed. Though as time goes on more of them are dying from natural causes rather than accidents.

[HP42]

Sad news. It can't be too many years before the whole Apollo program disappears from first hand knowledge and resides only in historical records. The saddest part is they paved the way yet now in 2017 we've never been back. 

[GordonD]

Turns out we've lost two Apollo-era astronauts in the last few weeks - Paul Weitz, part of the first Skylab crew (and later to fly on STS-6) left us on 22 October. As usual the BBC didn't think this worthy of mention.

[Eric Mc]

Another - sad to hear that too.