Biography famous astronauts pictures
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Schirra, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the United States' first manned spaceflight project, was the only astronaut to fly in all three of the first space programs for the U.S. —Mercury, Gemini and Apollo — was was the third American to orbit the earth.
NASA, Getty ImagesNASA astronaut Sally Ride, poses, in June 1983 at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
TONY RANZE, AFP Via Getty Images"Ham" the chimpanzee was not an astronaut, but he was the first great ape to travel to space.
Sue Ogrocki, ReutersNASA lost seven people on January 28, 1986, when a booster engine failed, causing the Shuttle Challenger to break apart just 73 seconds after launch.
Thagart was the first U.S. astronaut to be launched into the space by a Russian rocket and he was the first American to live in the Russian space station MIR.
HECTOR MATA, AFP Via Getty ImagesAstronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr. is shown in his Mercury pressure suit with a model of Mercury spacecraft behind him.
Learn more: Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly
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He currently holds the American record for the most extravehicular activities (EVAs).The goal was to study the long-term efforts of space travel on the human body. The mission lasted 8 days, with Armstrong spending over 21 hours on the lunar surface. He made history as the first African American in space. In an effort to prove that humans would be capable of performing basic tasks while in orbit, Ham was trained to push a lever when he saw a blue light.
It’s so beautiful!”
Learn more: Yuri Gagarin
Alan Shepard
Born in 1923, Alan Shepard was one of NASA’s original seven astronauts. To date, 636 people have travelled to space, with women comprising just over 11 per cent of that total. astronaut Normand Thagard (C, right group), Russian commander Vladimir Dezhurov (R) and flight engineer Gennady Strekalov(L) leave a building on their way to the launching pad of the Russian Soyuz TM 210 space station March 14, 1995.
Six years later, he was selected for a 2002 mission aboard the Endeavor. These famous astronauts decided to try swinging around the far side of the moon and, in the process, set a record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth.
In 1995, he completed his first NASA mission and subsequently performed 10 spacewalks and has spent almost 68 hours outside the spacecraft. At 203 miles above our planet, he said the first words spoken by a human in space: “I see the earth. 20, 1992 working in Spacelab-J module, was the first woman of color in the world to go into space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour and was a NASA astronaut for six years.
She orbited the Earth a whopping 48 times, keeping a flight log and taking photographs that aided future missions.
Learn more: Valentina Tereshkova
Sally Ride
Two decades after Valentina Tereshkova’s mission, Sally Ride became the first American woman (third overall) and the first LGBTQIA+ person in space. His words, “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” remain iconic.
He’s also famous for being the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon.
Learn more: Alan Shepard
Ham
In 1961, a male chimpanzee named Ham (an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center) became the first hominid sent into space. After retiring from the space program, Jemison became involved in research, wrote children’s books, and even appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In addition to Jemison's historic participation in the mission, the crew consisted of the first Japanese astronaut to fly aboard the shuttle and the first married couple to fly on the same space mission.