Tom Stafford, one of NASA's early astronauts, who flew in space four times including a trip to orbit the moon and then a historic rendezvous with Soviet cosmonauts, has died. He was 93 and passed away on Monday after battling a long illness.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, "Today General Tom Stafford went to the eternal heavens which he so courageously explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut as well as a peacemaker in Apollo Soyuz. Those of us privileged to know him are very sad but grateful we knew a giant."
Stafford was born in Weatherford, Okla., in 1930 and later recalled, "As a little boy I wanted to fly airplanes and then later, be a fighter pilot. I wanted to go higher and faster. And [space] was just the next logical step."
