<p align="justify" class="title">John Young, a legendary US astronaut who went into space six times, orbited the moon and then walked on its craggy surface, has died, NASA has announced.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He was 87 and died late Friday of complications from pneumonia, the space agency said. He lived in a Houston suburb just minutes from the NASA Space Center.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"NASA and the world have lost a pioneer," agency administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. "We will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young was a man of many firsts: the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programmes (and the first to command a shuttle flight); and the first to fly into space six times.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He once held the world record for total time spent in space, NASA said.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young joined Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission, then commanded the first space shuttle mission in what some people called "the boldest test flight in history."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He commanded Gemini 10, the first mission to rendezvous with two other spacecraft during a single flight.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young orbited the moon in Apollo 10, and made a lunar landing with Apollo 16. "In an iconic display of test pilot 'cool,' he landed the space shuttle (STS-9) with a fire in the back end," NASA said.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"He was in every way the 'astronaut's astronaut,'" Lightfoot said. But he was also described as a savvy engineer and a "test pilot's test pilot."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">While in the navy, Young set world records for the fastest ascension from a standing start in an F-4 Phantom II jet.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Once, during an air-to-air missile test, Young and another pilot approached each other's aircraft at a potentially calamitous speed of Mach 3 (2,300 miles per hour, or 3,700 kilometers per hour), according to Young's website.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"I got a telegram from the chief of naval operations," Young said in his understated way, "asking me not to do this any more."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden called Young and Robert "Hoot" Gibson the two best pilots he had ever known.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"Never met two people like them," he said. "Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane. They're just awesome." </p>
<p align="justify" class="title">John Young, a legendary US astronaut who went into space six times, orbited the moon and then walked on its craggy surface, has died, NASA has announced.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He was 87 and died late Friday of complications from pneumonia, the space agency said. He lived in a Houston suburb just minutes from the NASA Space Center.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"NASA and the world have lost a pioneer," agency administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. "We will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young was a man of many firsts: the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programmes (and the first to command a shuttle flight); and the first to fly into space six times.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He once held the world record for total time spent in space, NASA said.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young joined Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission, then commanded the first space shuttle mission in what some people called "the boldest test flight in history."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">He commanded Gemini 10, the first mission to rendezvous with two other spacecraft during a single flight.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Young orbited the moon in Apollo 10, and made a lunar landing with Apollo 16. "In an iconic display of test pilot 'cool,' he landed the space shuttle (STS-9) with a fire in the back end," NASA said.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"He was in every way the 'astronaut's astronaut,'" Lightfoot said. But he was also described as a savvy engineer and a "test pilot's test pilot."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">While in the navy, Young set world records for the fastest ascension from a standing start in an F-4 Phantom II jet.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Once, during an air-to-air missile test, Young and another pilot approached each other's aircraft at a potentially calamitous speed of Mach 3 (2,300 miles per hour, or 3,700 kilometers per hour), according to Young's website.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"I got a telegram from the chief of naval operations," Young said in his understated way, "asking me not to do this any more."</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden called Young and Robert "Hoot" Gibson the two best pilots he had ever known.</p>.<p align="justify" class="bodytext">"Never met two people like them," he said. "Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane. They're just awesome." </p>