Thomas P. Stafford

Thomas Patten Stafford came out of the Naval Academy in 1952 and flew F-86 Sabres before test piloting brought him to NASA's second astronaut class in 1962. He flew Gemini 6A in 1965 and Gemini 9A in 1966, mastering the rendezvous techniques the Moon missions would require. In 1969 he commanded Apollo 10, taking the lunar module within nine miles of the surface with Gene Cernan — everything short of landing, proving the system worked. Six years later, as a brigadier general, he became the first general officer in space when he commanded the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975, docking with a Sov…