Yardley, John Finley

▪ 2002

      American aeronautical engineer (b. Feb. 1, 1925, St. Louis, Mo.—d. June 26, 2001, Chesterfield, Mo.), was responsible for helping to coordinate the first manned spaceflights conducted by the U.S. Yardley began his career as a structural and aeronautical engineer at McDonnell Aircraft Corp. in 1946. He was recruited as a project engineer in the U.S. space program in 1958. After managing the launching operations for the Mercury series of manned spaceflights from 1961 to 1963, he served as technical director of the Gemini program from 1964 to 1967. As an associate administrator for spaceflights for NASA from 1974 to 1981, he helped develop the space shuttle program and oversaw the launch in 1981 of Columbia, the first reusable rocket-launched space vehicle. That same year he returned to work at McDonnell Douglas; he retired from the company as senior vice president in 1989.

* * *