People
61 articles
Alan Beanopen article →
Alan Shepardopen article →
Alexei LeonovA military pilot selected for the first cosmonaut corps. He was also a gifted painter, later capturing his experiences of space in numerous works. In 1975 he commanded Soyuz 19 during the historic docking with the American Apollo.open article →
Alfred Wordenopen article →
Bruce McCandless IIMission specialist and veteran of earlier shuttle flights.open article →
Charles Dukeopen article →
Charles F. BoldenDiscovery pilot who later became NASA administrator.open article →
Christa McAuliffeBorn 2 September 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. She taught social studies at a high school in Concord, New Hampshire. In July 1985 NASA selected her from over 11,000 applicants as the first participant in the "Teacher in Space" project, under which she was to teach two lessons live from orbit to schoolchildren on Earth. STS-51-L was her only spaceflight.open article →
Christopher FergusonCommander of the final shuttle mission, STS-135.open article →
David Scottopen article →
Deke SlaytonA military pilot in World War II and later a test pilot. In 1959 he was chosen among the first seven astronauts, but an irregular heartbeat grounded him. As head of the astronaut office he decided the crews of Gemini and Apollo. After being restored to flight status he assigned himself to Apollo–Soyuz as docking module pilot — becoming the oldest person to fly in space at that time.open article →
Dick ScobeeBorn 19 May 1939 in Cle Elum, Washington. He served as a U.S. Air Force pilot and later as a test pilot. He first flew to space in 1984 as pilot of STS-41-C, during which the crew repaired the Solar Maximum satellite in orbit. On Challenger's STS-51-L he commanded his second and final flight.open article →
Donn Eiseleopen article →
Douglas HurleyPilot of Atlantis on the program’s final flight.open article →
Ed Whiteopen article →
Edgar Mitchellopen article →
Edwin "Buzz" AldrinA doctor of orbital mechanics from MIT, nicknamed "Dr. Rendezvous." The second human to walk on the Moon.open article →
Ellison OnizukaBorn 24 June 1946 in Kealakekua, Hawaii, to a family of Japanese descent. He served as a flight test engineer in the U.S. Air Force. In January 1985, as a crew member of STS-51-C, he became the first Asian-American in space. On Challenger's STS-51-L he flew his second and final mission.open article →
Eugene CernanCommander of Apollo 17 and the last person to walk on the Moon. A veteran of Gemini 9A and Apollo 10, he was also the second American to walk in space.open article →
Frank Bormanopen article →
Fred HaiseLunar module pilot. Apollo 13 was his only spaceflight; he later commanded approach-and-landing tests of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977.open article →
Gennadi StrekalovSoviet cosmonaut and flight engineer. As a member of the Soyuz T-10-1 crew, he survived the rocket's launch-pad explosion on 26 September 1983 thanks to the SAS escape system.open article →
Gregory JarvisBorn 24 August 1944 in Detroit, Michigan. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, which nominated him as a payload specialist for an experiment on fluid behaviour in microgravity. His flight was repeatedly bumped in favour of other missions and scheduling changes before it finally took place on STS-51-L.open article →
Harrison SchmittLunar module pilot of Apollo 17 and a professional geologist — the only trained scientist to walk on the Moon during the Apollo program. He later served as a U.S. Senator for New Mexico.open article →
Jack SwigertCommand module pilot. He joined the crew only days before launch, replacing Ken Mattingly after Mattingly's exposure to German measles. Apollo 13 was his only spaceflight.open article →
James Irwinopen article →
James McDivittopen article →
Jim LovellCommander of Apollo 13. A veteran of Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8 (the first crewed flight to orbit the Moon), he later co-wrote the memoir "Lost Moon", the basis for the 1995 film Apollo 13.open article →
John Glennopen article →
John YoungCommander of STS-1. Already a veteran of Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, and Apollo 16 (on which he walked on the Moon), he became the only astronaut to fly Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle.open article →
Judith ResnikBorn 5 April 1949 in Akron, Ohio. She earned a degree in electrical engineering and a PhD from the University of Maryland. In 1984, on the maiden flight of the orbiter Discovery (STS-41-D), she became the second American woman in space and the first Jewish-American in space. On Challenger's STS-51-L she flew her second and final mission.open article →
Kathryn D. SullivanMission specialist who later became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk.open article →
Ken Mattinglyopen article →
L. Gordon Cooper Jr.Command pilot of Gemini 5 and veteran of Mercury-Atlas 9. He led the eight-day endurance mission with calm test-pilot discipline.coming soon
Loren ShriverMission commander and experienced shuttle pilot.open article →
Michael CollinsRemained in lunar orbit, circling the Moon 30 times. Later served as director of the National Air and Space Museum.open article →
Michael J. SmithBorn 30 April 1945 in Beaufort, North Carolina. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and flew A-6 Intruder attack aircraft off the carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War. He joined NASA in 1980; STS-51-L was his first spaceflight.open article →
Neil ArmstrongCommander of the Apollo 11 mission. On 20 July 1969 he became the first human on the Moon, famously calling it "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."open article →
Pavel BelyayevThe oldest member of the first cosmonaut corps and the only one who had seen wartime service. After the emergency landing of Voskhod 2 in deep taiga he spent two freezing nights with Leonov before rescuers reached them.open article →
Pete Conradopen article →
Rex WalheimMission specialist and veteran of several shuttle flights.open article →
Richard Gordonopen article →
Robert BehnkenAstronaut NASA, elektrotechnický inženýr a veterán misí raketoplánu.coming soon
Robert CrippenPilot of STS-1, his first spaceflight. He went on to command several further Space Shuttle missions.open article →
Ronald EvansCommand module pilot of Apollo 17. He orbited the Moon alone in the command module America for over three days and performed a deep-space EVA on the return journey to retrieve film cassettes.open article →
Ronald McNairBorn 21 October 1950 in Lake City, South Carolina. He studied physics and earned a PhD in laser physics from MIT in 1976. In 1984 he flew as a mission specialist on STS-41-B, becoming the second African-American in space. On Challenger's STS-51-L he flew his second and final mission.open article →
Rusty Schweickartopen article →
Sandra MagnusMission specialist responsible for payload and station operations.open article →
Sergei Pavlovich KorolevHe was born on 12 January 1907 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Fascinated from an early age by aviation and rocketry, in the 1930s he was among the founders of Moscow’s Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD). In 1938, at the height of Stalin’s purges, he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to forced labour. He passed through a camp in Kolyma in the far north-east of Siberia and then a “sharashka” — a prison design bureau led by aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev. He was released only in 1944 and fully rehabilitated in 1957. After the war he headed the OKB-1 design bureau, where he developed the R-7 Semyorka — the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile and the launch vehicle that carried Sputnik 1 into orbit on 4 October 1957. There followed Sputnik 2 with the dog Laika, the Luna probes and the crewed Vostok spacecraft, aboard which Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth on 12 April 1961 and, in 1963, the first woman Valentina Tereshkova. The Voskhod programme then produced the first spacewalk (Alexei Leonov, 1965). Korolev’s identity was strictly concealed — Soviet leaders feared for his safety and for the secrecy of the whole programme, so in the West he appeared only as the anonymous “Chief Designer”. He died on 14 January 1966 during surgery, before he could complete his great goal of a crewed flight to the Moon. Only after his death was his role revealed, and he was buried with state honours at the Kremlin Wall.open article →
Steven A. HawleyMission specialist involved in payload operations.open article →
Stuart Roosaopen article →
Tom Staffordopen article →
Valentina TereshkovaBefore being selected for the cosmonaut corps she worked in a textile factory and was an amateur parachutist — that jumping experience proved decisive, because Vostok cosmonauts ejected during their return. After her flight she became a symbol of the Soviet program and a prominent politician.open article →
Valeri KubasovAn aerospace engineer who entered the cosmonaut corps from the design bureau. As early as 1969, aboard Soyuz 6, he carried out one of the first experiments in welding metals in space. On Apollo–Soyuz he was flight engineer of Leonov's Soyuz 19.open article →
Vance BrandBefore NASA he was a test pilot and aeronautical engineer. He was selected as an astronaut in 1966. During the Apollo–Soyuz return, toxic nitrogen tetroxide entered the cabin and Brand briefly lost consciousness; the crew nonetheless landed safely. He later commanded STS-5, STS-41-B and STS-35.open article →
Vladimir TitovSoviet cosmonaut and military pilot. As commander of Soyuz T-10-1, he survived the rocket's explosion on the launch pad on 26 September 1983 thanks to the activation of the SAS escape system. Four years later, in 1987, he successfully flew to space again as commander of the Soyuz TM-4 mission.open article →
Wally Schirraopen article →
Walter Cunninghamopen article →
Wernher von BraunHe was born on 23 March 1912 in Wirsitz (today Wyrzysk, Poland) into a Prussian aristocratic family. Captivated by rocketry as a young man, in the 1930s he led the development of military rockets for the German army at the Peenemünde centre. In 1937 he joined the Nazi Party and in 1940 the SS, reaching the rank of Sturmbannführer (major). His team developed the A-4, better known as the V-2 — the first ballistic missile to cross the boundary of space (1942), deployed as a vengeance weapon against London and Antwerp. The V-2s were assembled in the underground Mittelwerk factory, worked by prisoners of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. In inhuman conditions around 20,000 people died there — more than the missiles themselves killed on impact. Von Braun was the project’s technical director, visited the plant repeatedly and knew of the conditions; he later downplayed his share of responsibility for the forced labour. This dark side of his biography was suppressed for decades. In May 1945 he and his team surrendered to the U.S. Army and were brought to the United States under the secret Operation Paperclip. He first developed the army’s Redstone rockets; his Juno I launcher placed the first American satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit on 31 January 1958. In 1960 he became the first director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the chief architect of the Saturn V, which on 20 July 1969 made the Apollo 11 Moon landing possible. He died on 16 June 1977 in Alexandria, Virginia. He remains a figure who cannot be judged one-sidedly — a brilliant engineer and a man bound to a criminal regime.open article →
William Andersopen article →
Yuri Alekseyevich GagarinThe first human in space. On 12 April 1961 he orbited the Earth aboard Vostok 1 and became a symbol of the Soviet space program.open article →