Apollo 10 Mission Commander Thomas Stafford Dies At 93

HOUSTON—U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas Stafford, who commanded NASA’s May 1969 Apollo 10 mission to the Moon and led the Apollo crew that participated in a historic linkup with Soviet cosmonauts, has died.

Stafford passed away on March 18 in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, according to the Stafford Air & Space Museum in his hometown of Weatherford, Oklahoma. He was 93.

Stafford was selected by NASA among the agency’s second group of astronauts in September 1962. He had been a U.S. Air Force officer and test pilot.

In December 1965 he launched aboard Gemini VI with astronaut Walter Schirra to conduct the first orbital rendezvous with a second spacecraft, Gemini VII, which was crewed by astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, who were conducting a 14-day mission controlled spacecraft re-entry demonstration. In June 1966, Stafford commanded the three-day Gemini IX mission with NASA astronaut Gene Cernan to demonstrate rendezvous and docking procedures for future Apollo missions.

In May 1969, Stafford commanded the Apollo 10 mission with NASA astronaut John Young and Cernan. The eight-day mission took them to orbit around the Moon, where Stafford and Cernan entered the lunar module and descended to 9 mi. above the lunar surface prior to re-rendezvousing with the Apollo 10 command module and Young for the return to Earth.

Stafford would serve as NASA chief astronaut and deputy director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center prior to launching on his fourth and final mission, the nine-day Apollo Soyuz Test Project, an orbital linkup with Soviet cosmonauts in July 1975 aboard their Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit. It was credited with ending the Cold War space race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

Following the milestone, Stafford resigned from NASA to return to the Air Force as a brigadier general and become the commanding general of Edwards AFB, California. While there and later at the Pentagon as head of Air Force Research, Development, and Acquisition, Stafford contributed to the development of the F-117 and B-2 stealth fighter and bomber and stealth cruise missile development.

He retired  from the military in 1979. Later, he chaired an independent advisory team on the execution of President George H.W. Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative, a push to return astronauts to the Moon to stay and move on to Mars. Stafford would go on to serve in a number of NASA and military advisory capacities and the boards of directors of a number of corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to NASA and Stafford Air and Space Museum biographical information.

Stafford is survived by his wife, Linda and two sons, as well as two daughters from a previous marriage. His burial is planned in Weatherford. Details were pending.