the commander john young the pilot, robert crippen young has already been in space times for a total of 533 hours. he is the most experienced astronaut flying today, although crippen has over 4000 hours of jet aircraft flying. this will be his first time in space. the astronaut make their way across the access arm toward the shuttle. in the predawn hours before launch. an american spaceship has never carried a human crew on its voyage at the launch control center three miles from the pad final. steps are being completed in the countdown and until final preparations also being made in the mission control center in houston, where control of the flight will switch once the shuttle the tower. okay now you switch to open until there has not been a manned launch from kennedy space center since the apollo-soyuz test project in july of 1975. with this one, anthony young and about launch controllers at, the cape and flight controllers, houston will experience the most dynamic, fast paced syriens of launch events ever undertaken in the space program on in less than minutes, with the most ascen