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Thomas P. Stafford (born September 17 1930) is an
American astronaut and United States Air Force|Air
Force general.

Stafford was raised in Weatherford, Oklahoma.  He
went on to graduate with honors in 1952 from the
U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the United
States Air Force. He received his pilot wings at
Connally AFB, Waco, Texas, in September 1953. He
completed advanced interceptor training and was
assigned to the 54th Flight Interceptor Squadron,
Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota. In
December 1955 he was assigned to the 496th Fighter
Interceptor Squadron, Hahn Air Base, Germany,
where he performed the duties of pilot, flight
leader, and flight test maintenance office, flying
F-86 Sabre|F-86Ds.

He was an instructor in flight test training and
specialized academic subjects-establishing basic
textbooks and directing the writing of flight test
manuals for use by the staff and students. He is
co-author of the Pilot's Handbook for Performance
Flight Testing and the Aerodynamics Handbook for
Performance Flight Testing.

Stafford was selected among the second group of
astronauts in September 1962 by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to
participate in Projects Gemini program|Gemini and
Apollo program|Apollo. In December 1965, he
piloted Gemini 6A|Gemini VI during the first
rendezvous in space, and helped develop techniques
to prove the basic theory and practicality of a
space rendezvous. In June 1966 he commanded Gemini
9A|Gemini IX and performed a demonstration of an
early rendezvous that would be used in Apollo 10:
the first optical rendezvous; and a lunar orbit
abort rendezvous. From August 1966 to October 1968
he headed the mission planning analysis and
software development responsibilities for the
astronaut group for Project Apollo.

Stafford was the lead member of the group, which
helped formulate the sequence of missions leading
to the first lunar landing mission. He
demonstrated and implemented the theory of a pilot
manually flying the Saturn (rocket family)|Saturn
booster into orbit and the translunar injection
maneuver.

Stafford was commander of Apollo 10 in May 1969,
which included the first flight of the lunar
module during a Moon orbit, the first rendezvous
while in the Moon environment, and the entire
lunar landing mission except for the actual
landing. He also did reconnaissance and evaluation
of future landing sites for Apollo 11.

Stafford and his crewmates were cited in the
Guinness Book of World Records for the highest
speed ever attained by man—during Apollo
10's return from the moon, the spacecraft reached
24,791 statute miles per hour.

He was assigned as head of the astronaut group in
June 1969, responsible for the selection of flight
crews for projects Apollo and Skylab. He reviewed
and monitored flight crew training status reports,
and was responsible for coordination, scheduling,
and control of all activities involving NASA
astronauts.

In June 1971, Stafford was assigned as Deputy
Director of Flight Crew Operations at the NASA
Manned Spaceflight Center. He was responsible for
assisting the director in planning and
implementation of programs for the astronaut
group, the Aircraft Operations, Flight Crew
Integration, Flight Crew Procedures, and Crew
Simulation and Training Divisions.

He logged his fourth space flight as Apollo
commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)
mission, July 15-24, 1975—a joint space
flight culminating in the historic first meeting
in space between American astronauts and Soviet
cosmonauts.

General Stafford was the first member of his Naval
Academy Class of 1952 to pin on the first, second
and third stars of a General Officer. He made six
rendezvous in space; logged 507 hours in space
flight; and wore the Air Force command Pilot
Astronaut Wings. He has flown over 120 different
types of aircraft and helicopters and four
different types of spacecraft.

General Stafford assumed command of the Air Force
Flight Test Center November 4, 1975. He was
promoted to the grade of Major General August 9,
1975, with date of rank of June 1, 1973.

Promoted to grade of Lieutenant General on March
15, 1978, he assumed duties as Deputy Chief of
Staff, Research Development and Acquisition,
Headquarters USAF, Washington, D.C., on May 1,
1978.  He retired from the Air Force in November
1979.

In June of 1990, Dan Quayle|Vice President Quayle
and Admiral Richard Truly, then NASA
Administrator, asked General Stafford to chair a
team to independently advise NASA how to carry out
President George H.W. Bush's vision of returning
to the Moon, this time to stay, and then go on to
explore Mars. General Stafford assembled teams of
40 full-time and 150 part-time members from the
DOD, DOE and NASA, and completed the study called
"America at the Threshold", a road map for the
next 30 years of the U.S. Manned Space Flight
Program. General Stafford and Vice President
Quayle held a joint Press Conference at the White
House in June 1991 to announce the recommendations
to the public.

He co-founded the Technical Consulting Firm of
Stafford, Burke, and Hecker, Inc. in Alexandria,
Virginia. He sits on the Board of Directors of six
corporations listed on the New York Stock
Exchange, one listed on the American Exchange, and
two others, including Seagate Technology, Inc.
Seagate Technology is the largest independent hard
disk drive maker in the world. He has served as an
advisor to a number of governmental agencies
including NASA and the Air Force Systems Command.
He was a defense advisor to Ronald Reagan during
the 1980 presidential campaign and a member of the
Reagan transition team. He served on the National
Research Council's Aeronautics and Space
Engineering Board; the Committee on NASA
Scientific and Technological Program Reviews, and
Vice President Quayle's Space Policy Advisory
Council. He was Chairman of the NASA Advisory
Council Task Force on Shuttle-Mir Rendezvous and
Docking Missions, and the NASA Advisory Council
Task Force on ISS Operational Readiness.

==External links==
*http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/stafford-tp
.html Astronaut bio:Thomas P. Stafford
*http://www.io.com/~o_m/ssh_forgotten_astp.html
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