WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday. He died in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home, said Max Ary, director of the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Photos You Should See View All 60 ImagesThe Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 set the stage for Apollo 11’s historic mission two months later. He volunteered for the Air Force and had hoped to fly combat in the Korean War. After the Apollo-Soyuz mission, Stafford returned to the Air Force and worked in research and commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center before retiring in 1979 as a three-star general.

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Persons: Thomas P, Stafford, Max, Tom Stafford, Bill Nelson, “ Tom, Gene Cernan, John Young, Charlie Brown, ” Stafford, Alexei Leonov, Tom, Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, “, you’re, Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, Wally Schirra, Stafford’s, Cernan, didn’t, Get, Linda Organizations: WASHINGTON, Air Force, Coast, Stafford Air & Space Museum, NASA, Apollo, Soviet Union, Disney World, Soyuz, Russian, Space, U.S . Naval Academy, Air, Gemini, Gene, Stafford's Air Force, Pentagon Locations: U.S, Stafford, Coast Florida, Weatherford , Oklahoma, Soviet, Soviet Union, Russia, Oklahoma, Florida, Cape Canaveral