Former astronaut James McDivitt (pictured above, on the left) has died on the age of 93. The Apollo 9 commander handed away in his sleep in Tuscon, Arizona, final Thursday, .

NASA chosen Air Force veteran McDivitt, who flew 145 fight missions within the Korean War and was an experimental take a look at pilot, as a part of its second astronaut class in 1962. His first journey to house was in 1965, because the commander of Gemini IV. During that mission, astronaut Ed White carried out the primary spacewalk by an American. The four-day mission was the longest NASA spaceflight at that time.

McDivitt returned to house 4 years later because the commander of Apollo 9, an necessary precursor to touchdown people on the Moon. The mission, which launched on March third, 1969, took the lunar module and the complete set of Apollo {hardware} to house for the primary time.

The Apollo 9 crew carried out an engineering take a look at of the lunar module in Earth’s orbit, together with a simulation of maneuvers that will be carried out throughout missions to the Moon. McDivitt and lunar module pilot Russell Schweickart carried out a spacewalk in the course of the mission, which returned to Earth on March thirteenth. Four months later, and landed the lunar module on the Moon.

After the Apollo 9 mission, McDivitt turned NASA’s supervisor of lunar touchdown operations. McDivitt, who held a bachelor’s diploma in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan, and his crew deliberate the lunar exploration program and redesigned the spacecraft to make sure it landed on the Moon safely. Following the success of , he turned supervisor of the Apollo Spacecraft Program and led it via the Apollo 16 mission.

McDivitt retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1972. Among different honors, he obtained two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals.