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VETERANIn MemoriamNASA
VETERANIn MemoriamNASANASA·🇺🇸 United States·Born 1930
Tom Stafford
Flew the Apollo 10 dress rehearsal to within 15 km of the lunar surface and commanded the American side of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz handshake in orbit.
507h
Hours in Space
4
Missions
0
EVAs
—
EVA Time
Inspirations
Biography
Flew the Apollo 10 dress rehearsal to within 15 km of the lunar surface and commanded the American side of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz handshake in orbit. He died in 2024.
Before NASAU.S. Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952, flew F-86 Sabres on Arctic defense missions, finished first in his class at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB in 1958, and co-wrote the definitive USAF handbooks on performance flight testing.
Mission Timeline
- Pilot
Gemini spacecraft
Gemini 6A
Launch: Dec 15, 1965Landing: Dec 16, 1965Duration: 1 day- First space rendezvous, with Gemini 7
- Commander
Gemini spacecraft
Gemini 9A
Launch: Jun 3, 1966Landing: Jun 6, 1966Duration: 3 days- Rendezvous tests with the 'angry alligator' target vehicle
- Commander
Apollo CSM Charlie Brown / LM Snoopy
Apollo 10
Launch: May 18, 1969Landing: May 26, 1969Duration: 8 days- Flew the Lunar Module to within 15 km of the Moon's surface
- Commander
Apollo CSM
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Launch: Jul 15, 1975Landing: Jul 24, 1975Duration: 9 days- Historic orbital handshake with Alexei Leonov
Beyond the Mission
Hobbies & Interests
huntingfishingscuba divingglidingweight lifting
Languages
EnglishRussian
Fun fact
Stafford was the first general officer to fly in space, and he later delivered a eulogy in Russian at his friend Alexei Leonov's funeral in 2019 — a reflection of the bond forged during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, when Leonov served as godfather to Stafford's children.
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