Tom Stafford

Thomas Patten Stafford was born on September 17, 1930, in Weatherford, Oklahoma, and rose to become one of the most accomplished pilots of the space age. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 but chose a commission in the newly independent U.S. Air Force, flying F-86 Sabres on Arctic air-defense missions. In 1958 he finished first in his class at the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base and stayed on as an instructor, co-authoring USAF handbooks on performance flight testing that became standard texts. NASA selected him in September 1962 with the second astronaut group. Over a career that spanned the heart of the Space Race, Stafford flew four missions and, on the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz flight, became the first general officer to fly in space.

Stafford's four flights traced the arc of the era. On Gemini 6A, launched December 15, 1965, he and Wally Schirra achieved the first rendezvous of two crewed spacecraft, maneuvering within about a foot of Gemini 7—validating techniques Apollo would depend on. On Gemini 9A in June 1966 he commanded a demanding rendezvous test whose docking target was shrouded by a jammed panel he famously dubbed the 'angry alligator.' His third flight, Apollo 10 in May 1969, was the full dress rehearsal for the Moon landing: Stafford and Gene Cernan flew the Lunar Module 'Snoopy' to within about 15 kilometers (roughly eight nautical miles) of the lunar surface—everything but the landing itself. His final mission, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of July 1975, was history of a different kind. As commander of the American crew, Stafford docked with a Soviet Soyuz and, in orbit, exchanged a handshake with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov—a symbolic thaw between Cold War rivals. Stafford, who had learned Russian for the flight, formed a lifelong friendship with Leonov, who later became godfather to Stafford's children.

Stafford served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971 and continued to rise through the Air Force, retiring as a lieutenant general—a three-star officer. After leaving NASA he remained deeply involved in aerospace as a business leader and government adviser, later co-chairing the task group that oversaw the Space Shuttle's return to flight after the 2003 Columbia accident and chairing earlier panels on the future of human spaceflight. He logged 507 hours in space across his four missions. When Leonov died in 2019, Stafford delivered a eulogy in Russian, honoring the partnership that had turned adversaries into friends. Stafford died of liver cancer on March 18, 2024, at his home in Satellite Beach, Florida, at the age of 93, remembered as both a supremely capable pilot and, through Apollo-Soyuz, one of the Space Race's most enduring peacemakers.