美国航天飞机“哥伦比亚”号,4月12日起飞,15日按照预定时间胜利返回地面。航机共飞行54.5个小时,绕地球36周,引起人们很大兴趣。担任这次飞行指挥的是职业宇航员约翰·杨,今年50岁,生于美国旧金山。他飞行历史颇长,是创造5次宇宙飞行的第一名宇航员。1962年,他是美国海军试飞驾驶员,后被宇航局选拔到宇航员训练班学习。1965年,他首次乘“双子星座—3号”上天;1968年第 The U.S. spacecraft Columbia took off on April 12 and returned to the ground on the 15th according to the scheduled time. The flight of a total of 54.5 hours, 36 weeks around the earth, aroused great interest. As the conductor of this flight is a professional astronaut John Young, 50 years old, was born in San Francisco. He has a long history of flying and is the first astronaut to create five space flights. In 1962, he was a US Navy flight test pilot and was later selected by the NASA astronaut training course. In 1965, he first took the “Gemini -3” God; 1968 the first