Astronaut
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U.S. Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a manned maneuvering unit (MMU) outside the Challenger in 1984. Picture courtesy NASA |
An
astronaut,
cosmonaut (
Russian: космона́вт),
spationaut or
taikonaut (
Chinese:
tàikōng rén, 太空人) is a person who
travels into space, or who makes a career of doing so. The criteria for determining who has achieved
human spaceflight vary (see
edge of space). In the
United States, people who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) are designated as astronauts. The
FAI defines spaceflight as over 100 km (62 miles). As of
July 4,
2006, a total of 452 humans have reached space according to the U.S. definition, 446 people qualify under the FAI definition, while 442 people have reached
Earth orbit or beyond. These individuals have spent over 28,000 crew-days (or a cumulative total of over 77 years) in space including over 100 crew-days of spacewalks. A person who has traveled in space is said to hold
astronaut wings. Astronauts from at least
35 countries have gone into space.
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Countries whose astronauts have flown in space |
By convention, a space traveller employed by the
Russian Aviation and Space Agency (or its
Soviet predecessor) is called a
cosmonaut. The word is an
anglicisation of the
Russian word космонавт (
IPA ), which in turn derives from the
Greek words
kosmos ("universe") and
nautes ("sailor").
In the U.S., a space traveller is called an
astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words
ástron ("star") and
nautes ("sailor"). For the most part, "cosmonaut" and "astronaut" are synonyms in all languages, and the usage of choice is often dictated by political reasons. The first known use of the term "astronaut" was by
Neil R. Jones in his short story
The Death's Head Meteor in 1930. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveller first applied (in 1784) to
balloonists.
On
March 14,
1995 astronaut
Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, arguably becoming the first American cosmonaut in the process.
In France space travellers are sometimes called
spationauts (from the
Latin words
spatium, "space", and
nauta, "sailor"). Europe has not yet produced manned spacecraft, but has sent men and women into space in cooperation with Russia and the United States.
Taikonaut is sometimes used in English for astronauts from
China by Western news media. The term was coined in May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (赵里昱) from
Malaysia, who used it first in
newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western
media based on the term
tàikōng (太空, literally "great emptiness"),
Chinese for "
space". In Chinese itself, however, a single term
y"háng yuán (宇航员, "universe navigator") has long been used for astronauts. The closest term using
taikong is a
colloquialism tàikōng rén (太空人, "space person"), which refers to people who have actually been in space. Official English texts issued by the Chinese government use
astronaut ().
The first documented attempt in human history to use a rocket for spaceflight was made in the 16th century by a Chinese
Ming dynasty official, a skilled stargazer named
Wan Hu. Wan fashioned a crude vehicle out of a sturdy chair and two kites affixed with 47 of the largest gunpowder-filled rockets he could find, and had his servants light them as he sat on the chair. The resultant explosion presumably killed him.
[1]The first person in space was
Yuri Gagarin, who was launched into space on
April 12 1961 aboard
Vostok 1. The first woman was
Valentina Tereshkova, launched into space in June 1963 aboard
Vostok 6.
Alan Shepard became the first American in space in May 1961, while the first American woman in space was
Sally Ride on
June 18,
1983. The Soviet Union, through its
Intercosmos program, allowed cosmonauts from other
socialist countries to fly on its missions. An example of this is
Vladimir Remek, a
Czech, who became the first non-Soviet European in space in 1978 on a Russian
Soyuz rocket. On
July 23 1980,
Pham Tuan of Vietnam became the first
Asian in space when he flew aboard
Soyuz 37. Also in 1980,
Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of
African descent to fly in space. (The first person born in Africa to fly in space was
Patrick Baudry.) In April 1985,
Taylor Wang became the first Chinese-born person in space; later that year,
Rodolfo Neri became the first Mexican-born person in space. In 1991,
Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space. In 2002,
Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space. On
15 October 2003,
Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on the
Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. The first mission to orbit the moon was
Apollo 8 which included
William Anders - who was born in
Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968.
The youngest person to fly in space is
Gherman Titov, who was roughly 26 years old when he flew
Vostok 2 (he was also the first to suffer "
space sickness"), and the oldest is
John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on
STS-95. The longest stay in space was 438 days by
Valeri Polyakov.
As of 2005, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut was seven, a record held by both
Jerry L. Ross and
Franklin Chang-Diaz. The furthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (during the
Apollo 13 emergency).
The first non-governmental astronaut was
Byron K. Lichtenberg, an
MIT researcher who flew on
Space Shuttle mission
STS-9 in 1983. In December 1990,
Toyohiro Akiyama became the first commercial spacefarer as a reporter for
Tokyo Broadcasting System, who paid for his flight. The first self-funded
space tourist was
Dennis Tito on
28 April 2001, while the first astronaut to fly on an entirely privately-funded mission was
Mike Melvill, on
SpaceShipOne flight 15P (which he piloted), though this flight was sub-orbital.
In the United States, persons selected as astronaut candidates receive silver
Astronaut wings. Once they have flown in space they receive gold Astronaut wings. The
United States Air Force also presents Astronaut wings to its pilots who exceed 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.
The first astronauts, both in the U.S. and USSR, tended to be
jet fighter pilots, often
test pilots, from military backgrounds. U.S. military astronauts receive a special qualification badge, known as the
Astronaut Badge upon completion of Astronaut training and participation in a space flight.
To date, eighteen astronauts have been killed on space missions, and at least ten more have been killed in ground-based training accidents. Fourteen of these have died in the
Space Shuttle program, during mishaps in missions
STS-51-L (
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster) and
STS-107 (
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster).
*
List of astronauts by name*
List of astronauts by selection*
Timeline of astronauts by nationality* List of human spaceflights:
1961-1986,
1987-1999,
2000-present.
*
List of spacewalks and moonwalks*
X-15*
Spaceflight records*
Shirley Thomas, author of
Men of Space series (1960-1968)
*
Cosmonautics Day*
Yuri's Night*
Fallen Astronaut*
Earthstronaut*
List of fictional astronauts*
Encyclopedia Astronautica *
Encyclopedia Astronautica: Phantom cosmonauts*
collectSPACE: Astronaut appearances calendar
