Apollo 10 astronaut Tom Stafford, who also flew two Gemini missions as well as the Apollo-Soyuz mission, passed away on Monday, March 18, 2024 at home in Satellite Beach, Florida at the age of 93.

Stafford’s first flight was on Gemini 6, which achieved the first rendezvous in space when it maneuvered close to Gemini 7 during its two-week mission. He then flew on Gemini 9, which was to attempt the first docking but was stymied when the shroud on the Agena target vehicle failed to release, blocking the docking port. The crew could only rendezvous again.

Stafford then commanded Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing, flying his lunar module to within about ten miles of the Moon’s surface. His final mission was Apollo-Soyuz, the first joint mission between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Of the 24 Apollo astronauts that flew to the Moon, only seven still live. A truly great generation of Americans, possibly the greatest generation of all, is slowly leaving us.

 

Life of Tom Stafford

From August 1966 to October 1968, Stafford headed the mission planning analysis and software development responsibilities for the astronaut group for Project Apollo.  He was the lead member of the team that helped formulate the sequence of missions leading to the first lunar landing mission.  He demonstrated and implemented the theory of a pilot manually flying the giant Saturn V booster into orbit, and the technique for the critical translunar injection maneuver.

In May 1969, Stafford commanded the Apollo 10 mission to the moon, piloting the first Lunar Module (LM) into lunar orbit.  The highly successful mission was the final full-scale dress rehearsal for the lunar landing of the Apollo 11 mission just two months later. Stafford flew the LM down to within nine miles of the moon’s surface designating the landing ellipse for the first landing, performed the first lunar rendezvous, conducted reconnaissance on future Apollo landing sites, and proved all the necessary elements of the lunar landing, with the exception of the actual landing itself.

During the Apollo 10 reentry, General Stafford and his crew were recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for reaching the highest speed ever attained by man, when the spacecraft reached a speed of 24,791 statute miles per hour – Mach 37.  This ultimate speed record still holds today and may not be exceeded until an astronaut crew returns from a mission to Mars.

Following his return from the moon, Stafford was assigned as the Chief of the Astronaut Office in June 1969, and was responsible for the selection of flight crews for Projects Apollo and Skylab.  He reviewed and monitored flight crew training status, and was responsible for coordination, scheduling, and control of all activities involving NASA astronauts.

In June 1971, Stafford was named as the Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations at the NASA Manned Space Flight Center (later known as the Johnson Space Center) in Houston.  He was responsible for assisting the center director in planning and implementation of programs for the astronaut group, Aircraft Operations, Flight Crew Integration, Flight Crew Procedures, and Crew Simulation and Training Divisions.

General Stafford became the first general to fly into space when he logged his fourth space flight as Apollo commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, July 15-24, 1975.  This mission was the first international space flight and was joint mission culminating in the historic “first handshake in space” between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. Historians now consider the mission as the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and for his efforts, General Stafford was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

General Stafford was promoted to the grade of Major General in August 1975.  He left NASA in November 1975 to assume the command of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California. As part of his responsibilities, he also assumed the operational command of the Groom Lake Test Facility (better known as “Area 51”) in Nevada, the Hill-Dougway-Wendover Test Range in Utah, and the Parachute Test Facility in El Centro, California. During his tenure, he was responsible for the testing oversight of the F-15, YF-16, YF-17 (later to become the F-18), the A-10, B-1A, YC-14, YC-15, C-141B, Air Launch Cruise Missile (ALC), “Have Blue” (the first experimental stealth aircraft), and the safety and operations oversight of the Approach and Landing Test (ALT) Program for the Space Shuttle.

General Stafford was promoted to Lt. General in March 1978, and in May 1978 assumed the duties as the USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition, HQ USAF, Washington, D.C.  In addition to the standard duties of his position, in 1979, General Stafford personally initiated the development of the F-117A stealth fighter program. Stafford then wrote the initial design specifications for and started the Advanced Technology Bomber development (ATV) Program (later renamed the B-2A Stealth Bomber) even though no statement-of-need or requirements existed.

He initiated the Advanced Cruise Missile program, designated as the AGM-129 Stealth Cruise Missile, and started the F-110 Afterburning Turbo-Fan Fighter engine program.  He also initiated what would become the roadmap for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), which would become the F-22A Stealth Fighter. General Stafford retired from the Air Force in November 1979.

By the end of his military and NASA career, General Stafford was the first member of his Naval Academy Class of 1952 to pin on the first, second and third stars of a General Officer.  He flew six rendezvous in space; logged 507 hours and 43 minutes in space flight time and wears the Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. He has flown over 127 different types of aircraft and helicopters, four different types of spacecrafts, and rode three different types of boosters into space. ​

In December 1979, former California Governor Ronald Reagan asked General Stafford to join his 1980 presidential campaign team as his Air Force defense advisor and was on Reagan’s transition team after his election as President in November 1980.

In June of 1990, Vice-President Dan Quayle and the NASA Administrator asked General Stafford to form and become Chairman of a team to independently advise NASA how to carry out President Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative, his vision of permanently returning to the moon, and then go on to explore Mars.

General Stafford assembled teams of 40 full-time and 150 part-time members from the DOD, DOE, NASA, as well as obtaining inputs from academia, and many industrial groups to conduct the one-year comprehensive study.  The result was “America at the Threshold,” a road map for the next 30 years of the U.S. Manned Space Flight Program.  General Stafford and Vice-President Quayle held a joint press conference at the White House in June 1991 to announce the recommendations to the public. ​

In 1994, the Clinton Administration directed a review of all federally funded research and development plans of the Executive Branch.  General Stafford chaired the committee to review and make recommendations to enhance the efficiency of the R&D initiatives of the NASA Human Exploration Enterprise that included the NASA Centers at JSC, KSC, MSFC and SSFC.

General Stafford co-founded the technical consulting firm of Stafford, Burke, and Hecker, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.  He has served on the Board of Directors of numerous corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the American Exchange.  He has served as an advisor to a number of governmental agencies, including NASA and the Air Force Systems Command (later named the Air Force Materials Command).

General Stafford also served on the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, the Committee on NASA’s Scientific and Technological Program Reviews, and Vice-President Quayle’s Space Policy Advisory Council.  He was Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council Task Force for the Shuttle-Mir rendezvous and docking missions and was Co-Chairman of the Stafford-Covey Space Shuttle Return to Flight task force following the Shuttle “Columbia” accident in 2003. ​

General Stafford continues to provide his experience and engineering expertise in the designs of the future manned spacecraft by serving as Chairman of NASA’s key Space Station Oversight Committee for ISS safety, preparedness, and operation since 2017.

General Stafford was presented his fifth NASA Distinguished Service Medal by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in March 2024.

Source:  www.nasa.gov