Richard F. Gordon, Jr.

After graduation from the University of Washington in 1951, Richard F. “Dick” Gordon joined the U.S. Navy to train as a fighter pilot. By 1957, he was flying the F-4 Phantom II as project pilot and then later a flight instructor for the jet at the Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. Gordon competed in the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles to New York in 1961, winning the prize in the F-4 Phantom and establishing a new speed record and transcontinental speed record during the flight. Chosen for the third astronaut class in 1963, Gordon moved to Houston to begin training for the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Quick Facts

During Navy preflight school in 1951, Dick Gordon and his fellow cadets were marched to an auditorium to see a presentation about space and orbiting objects. As he was listening to the presenter, Gordon thought “he was a little bit off his rocker.” The man presenting those new ideas was Wernher von Braun.

Gemini XI pilot Dick Gordon and commander Pete Conrad performed a docking maneuver with the Agena target vehicle similar to what the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module would later be required to do during the Apollo missions.

Gordon performed two EVAs during Gemini XI. The first spacewalk entailed fastening a 100-foot tether to the Gemini’s docking bar for a passive stabilization experiment. The second time the hatch was opened, Gordon stood in the opening with only his head and shoulders outside of the spacecraft and took photographs of the Earth.

Gordon served as the command module pilot on Apollo 12, and remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module, Yankee Clipper, taking photographs of possible future Apollo landing sites while his crewmates, Pete Conrad and Al Bean walked on the surface of the Moon.

The Gemini XI prime crew, astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Richard F. Gordon Jr. pose in front of the recovery helicopter on the USS Guam. — The Gemini XI prime crew, astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. (right) and Richard F. Gordon Jr. pose in front of the recovery helicopter which brought them to the USS Guam. (15 Sept. 1966)
NASA

The prime crew of the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission during spacecraft checkout activity at North American Rockwell Space Division at Downey, California. — The prime crew of the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission is photographed during spacecraft checkout activity at North American Rockwell Space Division at Downey, California. Left to right, are astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot; and Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot. (1969)
NASA

The Apollo 12 astronauts, Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean, pose in front of a NASA T-38 training aircraft at Patrick Air Force Base. — The Apollo 12 astronauts, left to right, Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean, pose in front of a NASA T-38 training aircraft at Patrick Air Force Base. Each astronaut piloted his own T-38, performing aerobatics in preparation for their mission, the second manned lunar landing.
NASA

Biography

Richard F. Gordon, Jr.

Chosen as a member of the third astronaut group, Dick Gordon flew on the Gemini XI mission, performing two spacewalks, and again as the command module pilot on Apollo 12.

Gordon was a Navy test pilot and flight instructor when the call for the second class of NASA astronauts was announced. Along with his squadron mate, Pete Conrad, he applied, but was not chosen as one of the nine in that class, but Conrad was selected. Gordon was “bitterly disappointed about that and almost resigned from the Navy at that time and went into something else.” But he “calmed down” and was soon selected for the third class in October, 1963.

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Astronaut Richard F. Gordon, Jr., Prime Crew Command Module Pilot of the Apollo 12 Lunar Landing Mission, in his spacesuit minus the helmet. Gordon is standing outside beside a mockup of the Lunar Lander.(September 1969)

NASA

All Crewed Missions

Gemini XI

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All Crewed Missions

Apollo 12

The primary mission objectives of the second crewed lunar landing included an extensive series of lunar exploration tasks by the lunar module, or LM, crew, as well as the deployment…

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