Richard F. Gordon, Jr.

Richard "Dick" Francis Gordon, Jr. (born October 5, 1929) is a retired Captain in the United States Navy, and a retired NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.

Military and flight experience
Gordon was born in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, Washington, then received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1951.

He received his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1953. He then attended All-Weather Flight School and jet transitional training, and was subsequently assigned to an all-weather fighter squadron at Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1957, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and served as a flight test pilot until 1960. During this tour of duty, he did flight test work on the F-8U Crusader, F-11F Tiger, FJ Fury, and A-4D Skyhawk, and was the first project test pilot for the F-4H Phantom II. He served with Fighter Squadron 121 (VF-121) at the Naval Air Station Miramar, California, as a flight instructor in the F-4H and participated in the introduction of that aircraft to the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. He was also flight safety officer, assistant operations officer, and ground training officer for Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96) at Miramar.

He won the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles to New York City in May 1961, in which he established a new speed record of 869.74 miles per hour and a transcontinental speed record of 2 hours and 47 minutes.

He was also a student at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California.

He has logged more than 4,500 hours flying time&mdash;3,500 hours in jet aircraft.

NASA experience
Gordon was one of the third group of astronauts, named by NASA in October 1963. He had been a finalist for the second selection, in 1962.

Gordon served as backup pilot for the Gemini 8 flight. In September 1966, he made his first space flight, as pilot of Gemini 11, alongside Pete Conrad. Gordon was already good friends with Conrad, who had been his roommate on the carrier USS Ranger. On the flight, Gordon performed two EVAs, which included attaching a tether to the Agena and retrieving a nuclear emulsion experiment package.

Gordon was subsequently assigned as backup command-module pilot for Apollo 9. In November 1969, he flew as command-module pilot of Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon. While his crewmates, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, landed in the Ocean of Storms, Gordon remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module, Yankee Clipper, making desired mapping photographs of tentative landing sites for future missions.

After Apollo 12, Gordon was assigned as backup commander of Apollo 15. He was slated to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 18, but that mission was cancelled because of budget cuts. Gordon completed two space flights, logging a total of 315 hours and 53 minutes in space, of which 2 hours and 41 minutes were spent in EVA.

Gordon retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy in January 1972.

After NASA
Since leaving NASA, Gordon has served as Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Saints Professional Football Club in the National Football League (1972–76); was General Manager of Energy Developers, Limited (EDL), a Texas Partnership involved in a joint venture with Rocket Research Corporation for the development of a liquid chemical explosive for use in the oil and gas industry (1977); President of Resolution Engineering and Development Company (REDCO) which provided design and operational requirements for wild oil well control and fire fighting equipment onboard large semi-submersible utility vessels (1978); following REDCO merger with Amarco Resources, Gordon assumed the additional duties of Vice President of Marketing, Westdale, an oil well servicing subsidiary of AMARCO operating in North Central Texas and Oklahoma, and also served as Vice President for Operations, Texas Division (1980); served as Director, Scott Science and Technology, Inc., Los Angeles Division (1981–1983).

In March 1982 he became President of Astro Sciences Corporation. This company provides a range of services including engineering, project management, project field support teams, to software and hardware system design for control room applications. In the summer of 1984, Gordon was a Technical Advisor for and played the part of "Capcom" in the CBS mini-series Space by James A. Michener.

He is a fellow of the American Astronautical Society, an associate fellow of Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a member of the Navy League.

Gordon wrote the foreword of the book Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon by fellow Apollo astronaut Al Worden.

In the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon Gordon was played by Tom Verica.

Awards and honors

 * NASA Distinguished Service Medal
 * NASA Exceptional Service Medal
 * 1961 Bendix Trophy
 * Gordon Elementary School in Kingston, Washington was named after him.
 * Gordon was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame on March 19, 1993.

Technical papers

 * Gordon, R. F., F4H-1 Navy Preliminary Evaluation, Phase I, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, September 1958.
 * Gordon, R. F., F4H-1 Navy Preliminary Evaluation, Phase I Supplement, October 1958.
 * Gordon, R. F., FJ-4B Fuel Consumption and Performance Report, Flight Test, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, 1958.
 * Gordon, R. F., F11F Fuel Consumption and Performance Report, Flight Test, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, 1958.
 * Gordon, R. F., Revised Roll Performance Requirements for MIL-SPEC-F-8785. All Aircraft in Configuration PA, Flight Test, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, 1958.
 * Gordon, R. F., F8U Spin Evaluation Report, Flight Test, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, 1959.
 * Gordon, R. F., Gemini XI, Gemini Program Mission Report, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Report, October 1966.
 * Gordon, R. F., Apollo XII Mission Report, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Report, December 1969.