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2024-03-18
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The following is a statement from the Administrator of NASA Bill Nelson on the death Monday of Thomas Stafford, a lifelong advocate of space exploration, former NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force general:
“Today, General Tom Stafford he went to the eternal heavens, which he so bravely explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut, as well as a peacekeeper on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing him are very sad but grateful to have known a giant.
“Tom was instrumental in the early successes of our nation’s space program and was instrumental in developing space as a model for international cooperation. He also helped us learn from our tragedies and grow and achieve the next generation of achievements. He was intimately involved with the space program, sharing his thoughts and suggestions on NASA missions until the end of his life.
“Tom was a gentleman and a daredevil. He flew on our first encounter in space on Gemini 6 and piloted Gemini 9’s path to Earth with pencil and paper when the spacecraft’s guidance computer failed in orbit. He commanded the Apollo 10, the first flight of the lunar module to the Moon, a critical test flight that resulted in the successful landing on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Tom also flew over 100 different types of aircraft throughout his career as he pushed the limit of our achievement in air and space. He was a peacemaker extraordinaire who commanded NASA’s first international spacecraft rendezvous on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. His counterpart, General Alexei LeonovShe became his best friend over the years. Tom gave Alexei’s eulogy in 2019 at the Russian state funeral.
“Tom’s dedication to NASA never wavered. In later years, he chaired a team to independently advise NASA on how to carry out the President H. W. Bush space policy and completed the ‘America at the Threshold’ study on the nation’s potential future with humans in space. She was also co-chair of the Stafford-Covey Space Shuttle Return to Flight Task Force that evaluated NASA’s implementation of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board’s Space Shuttle Return to Flight recommendations.
“Our nation will be forever grateful to an explorer who never lost his sense of wonder. Of his time in space, he said: ‘It changes you, sure. It changes your perspective… When you look back, you see a little bit of blue and La white baseball is actually smaller than a baseball. But it’s hard to imagine that it’s where all the people you’ve known your whole life are, where you went to school, your friends, your family. It’s also hard Imagine that there are three billion people on that blue and white baseball.
“Good luck, Tom Stafford“.
For more information about Stafford’s career at NASA and his biography at the agency, visit:
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SOURCE NASA
