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astronaut
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Robert Gibson and Vladimir Dezhurov Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4 John Glenn entering Friendship 7 Yuri Gagarin Valentina Tereshkova Sally Ride Robert L. Satcher, Jr.
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astronaut training Richard R. Arnold II
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Robert Gibson and Vladimir Dezhurov
astronaut summary
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Famous Astronauts and Cosmonauts
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Notable astronauts

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Also known as: cosmonaut, taikonaut, yuhangyuan
Written by
John M. Logsdon
John M. Logsdon is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He was a member of the NASA Advisory Council...
John M. Logsdon
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Last Updated: • Article History

News •

Station Science Top News: Dec. 6, 2024 • Dec. 7, 2024, 12:21 AM ET (NASA (.gov))
SpaceX Dragon Departure Delayed Again As Astronauts Gear Up for Spacewalks • Dec. 6, 2024, 4:30 AM ET (SciTechDaily)

Notable astronauts are listed chronologically in the table.

Chronology of notable astronauts
name mission date accomplishment
Yuri Gagarin
 Yury Gagarin Vostok 1 April 12, 1961 first man in space
Alan Shepard
 Alan Shepard Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) May 5, 1961 first American in space
Vostok 2; Glenn, John; Kennedy, John F.; Titov, Gherman
 Gherman Titov Vostok 2 Aug. 6–7, 1961 first to spend more than one day in space; youngest person (25 years old) in space
John Glenn
 John Glenn Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) Feb. 20, 1962 first American in orbit
STS-95; Glenn, John
 STS-95 (Discovery) Oct. 28–Nov. 7, 1998 oldest person (77 years old) in space
Pavel Popovich on Vostok 4
 Adriyan Nikolayev; Pavel Popovich Vostok 3; Vostok 4 Aug. 11–15, 1962; Aug. 12–15, 1962 first simultaneous flight of two spacecraft
Valentina Tereshkova
 Valentina Tereshkova Vostok 6 June 16–19, 1963 first woman in space
cosmonaut; Voskhod I
 Konstantin Feoktistov; Vladimir Komarov; Boris Yegorov Voshkod 1 Oct. 12–13, 1964 first multimanned spacecraft; first doctor in space (Yegorov)
Three stills from an external movie camera on the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod 2 recording pilot Aleksey Leonov making the first space walk, March 18, 1965.
 Aleksey Leonov Voshkod 2 March 18–19, 1965 first person to walk in space
Apollo 1
 Roger Chaffee; Virgil Grissom; Edward White II Apollo 1 Jan. 27, 1967 killed in fire while testing spacecraft
Vladimir Komarov Soyuz 1 April 23–24, 1967 first spaceflight casualty
Frank Borman
 William Anders; Frank Borman; James Lovell Apollo 8 Dec. 21–27, 1968 first to fly around the Moon
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface.
 Neil Armstrong; Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin Apollo 11 July 16–24, 1969 first to walk on the Moon
Apollo 13 astronauts
 Fred Haise; James Lovell; Jack Swigert Apollo 13 April 11–17, 1970 farthest from Earth (401,056 km [249,205 miles]); survived oxygen-tank explosion
Georgy Dobrovolsky; Viktor Patsayev; Vladislav Volkov Soyuz 11/Salyut 1 June 6–29, 1971 first stay on a space station; first to die in space
Apollo 17
 Eugene Cernan; Harrison Schmitt Apollo 17 Dec. 7–19, 1972 last to walk on the Moon
Apollo-Soyuz
 Vance Brand; Donald Slayton; Thomas Stafford; Valery Kubasov; Aleksey Leonov Apollo-Soyuz July 17–19, 1975 first joint U.S.-Soviet spaceflight
Jähn, Sigmund
 Sigmund Jähn Soyuz 31/Salyut 6/Soyuz 29 Aug. 26–Sept. 3, 1978 first German astronaut in space
Jean-Loup Chrétien.
 Jean-Loup Chrétien Soyuz T-6/Salyut 7 June 24–July 2, 1982 first French astronaut in space
Sally Ride
 Sally Ride STS-7 (Challenger) June 18–24, 1983 first American woman in space
Guion Bluford
 Guion Bluford STS-8 (Challenger) Aug. 30–Sept. 5, 1983 first African American in space
Spacelab 1
 Ulf Merbold STS-9 (Columbia) Nov. 28–Dec. 8, 1983 first ESA astronaut in space
Sharma, Rakesh
 Rakesh Sharma Soyuz T-11/Salyut 7 April 3–11, 1984 first Indian in space
Marc Garneau
 Marc Garneau STS-41-G (Challenger) Oct. 5–13, 1984 first Canadian in space
Franklin Chang-Díaz, 1997.
 Franklin Chang-Díaz STS-61-C (Columbia) Jan. 12–18, 1986 first Hispanic American in space
Christa Corrigan McAuliffe
 Christa McAuliffe STS-51-L (Challenger) Jan. 28, 1986 was to have been the first teacher in space; killed in Challenger explosion
Akiyama Toyohiro.
 Akiyama Tohiro Soyuz TM-11/Mir/Soyuz TM-10 Dec. 2–10, 1990 first Japanese in space; first commercial astronaut
Helen Sharman Soyuz TM-12/Mir/Soyuz TM-11 May 18–26, 1991 first Briton in space; first non-U.S., non-Russian female astronaut
Mae Jemison
 Mae Jemison; Mohri Mamoru STS-47 (Endeavour) Sept. 12–20, 1992 first African American woman in space; first Japanese astronaut in space
Ellen Ochoa
 Ellen Ochoa STS-56 (Discovery) April 8–17, 1993 first Hispanic American woman in space
Soyuz TM-20
 Valery Polyakov Soyuz TM-18/Mir/Soyuz TM-20 Jan. 8, 1994– March 22, 1995 longest stay in space (438 days)
Sergey Krikalyov, 1998.
 Sergey Krikalyov STS-60 (Discovery) Feb. 3–11, 1994 first Russian on U.S. spacecraft
Eileen Collins toys with a roll of paper scrap in microgravity while serving as pilot of the U.S. space shuttle orbiter Atlantis in May 1997.
 Eileen Collins STS-93 (Columbia) July 23–28, 1999 first female space shuttle commander
Dennis Tito
 Dennis Tito Soyuz TM-32/ISS/Soyuz TM-31 April 28–May 6, 2001 first space tourist
U.S. astronauts Jerry Ross (left) and James H. Newman on the final of three space walks of the STS-88 mission, December 15, 1998.
 Jerry Ross STS-110 (Atlantis)/ISS April 8–19, 2002 first person to fly into space seven times
Yang Liwei
 Yang Liwei Shenzhou 5 Oct. 15, 2003 first Chinese astronaut in space
Michael Melvill SpaceShipOne June 21, 2004 first private spaceflight
Yi Soyeon
 Yi So-Yeon Soyuz TMA-12/ISS/Soyuz TMA-11 April 8–19, 2008 first Korean astronaut in space
John M. Logsdon