"I'm going to give you the opportunity to get knocked in the head if you don't leave me alone!"
John Young is my hero, and not just for that comment. NASA broke with established policy and never flew an unmanned shuttle to test the launch & re-entry system. John Young (along with pilot Robert Crippen) flew the Columbia into orbit and returned to Earth, proving that the Space Shuttle could carry men into space and return them safely home. Never mind that he also walked on the moon and I think still holds the orbital altitude record from Gemini 10.
I'll second that. He came into the astronaut corps in the "New Nine", flew Gemini, Apollo, and was the Right Stuff to test fly the Shuttle. I'll never forget those images of him in Geezer Glasses in the Shuttle command seat. He flew a couple of Shuttle missions, then stayed as chief astronaut, technically still on active flight status when he retired only a few years ago.
