Llewellyn thomas biography

— John Llewellyn, a chemist who in 1967 was selected to be a NASA astronaut but whose inability to pilot a jet led to him resigning from the space program a year later, died July 2.

He was 80.

A member of the United States' second group of scientist-astronauts, Llewellyn and his fellow candidates, including future shuttle veterans Joseph Allen and Story Musgrave, dubbed themselves the "Excess Eleven" as there were no missions for them to fly.

Two members withdrew from the astronaut corps to return to their scientific studies due to the lack of spaceflight opportunities.

For Llewelyn, who soon after his selection described his ambition as wanting to "make a successful flight, do some good experiments and get some good first-class science out of it," the choice to leave came well before a mission assignment was even an option.

Unlike prior astronaut candidates, who were either chosen because they were al