Chronology Of Notable Astronauts
The term astronaut is commonly applied to an individual who has flown in outer space. More specifically, astronauts are those persons who went to space aboard a U.S. spacecraft; individuals who first traveled aboard a spacecraft operated by the Soviet Union or Russia are known as cosmonauts, and those from China are known as taikonauts. In the decades since Yury Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, many milestones in space travel have been achieved by a variety of men and women from around the world.
The table provides a chronology of notable astronauts.
name
mission
date
accomplishment
Yury Gagarin
Vostok 1
April 12, 1961
first man in space
Alan Shepard
Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7)
May 5, 1961
first American in space
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
Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7)
Feb. 20, 1962
first American in orbit
STS-95 (Discovery)
Oct. 28–Nov. 7, 1998
oldest person (77 years old) in space
Adriyan Nikolayev; Pavel Popovich
Vostok 3; Vostok 4
Aug. 11–15, 1962; Aug. 12–15, 1962
first simultaneous flight of two spacecraft
Valentina Tereshkova
Vostok 6
June 16–19, 1963
first woman in space
Konstantin Feoktistov; Vladimir Komarov; Boris Yegorov
Voshkod 1
Oct. 12–13, 1964
first multimanned spacecraft; first doctor in space (Yegorov)
Aleksey Leonov
Voshkod 2
March 18–19, 1965
first person to walk in space
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
William Anders; Frank Borman; James Lovell
Apollo 8
Dec. 21–27, 1968
first to fly around the Moon
Neil Armstrong; Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin
Apollo 11
July 16–24, 1969
first to walk on the Moon
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
Eugene Cernan; Harrison Schmitt
Apollo 17
Dec. 7–19, 1972
last to walk on the Moon
Vance Brand; Donald Slayton; Thomas Stafford; Valery Kubasov; Aleksey Leonov
Apollo-Soyuz
July 17–19, 1975
first joint U.S.-Soviet spaceflight
Sigmund Jähn
Soyuz 31/Salyut 6/Soyuz 29
Aug. 26–Sept. 3, 1978
first German astronaut in space
Jean-Loup Chrétien
Soyuz T-6/Salyut 7
June 24–July 2, 1982
first French astronaut in space
Sally Ride
STS-7 (Challenger)
June 18–24, 1983
first American woman in space
Guion Bluford
STS-8 (Challenger)
Aug. 30–Sept. 5, 1983
first African American in space
Ulf Merbold
STS-9 (Columbia)
Nov. 28–Dec. 8, 1983
first ESA astronaut in space
Rakesh Sharma
Soyuz T-11/Salyut 7
April 3–11, 1984
first Indian in space
Marc Garneau
STS-41-G (Challenger)
Oct. 5–13, 1984
first Canadian in space
Franklin Chang-Díaz
STS-61-C (Columbia)
Jan. 12–18, 1986
first Hispanic American in space
Christa McAuliffe
STS-51-L (Challenger)
Jan. 28, 1986
was to have been the first teacher in space; killed in Challenger explosion
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; Mohri Mamoru
STS-47 (Endeavour)
Sept. 12–20, 1992
first African American woman in space; first Japanese astronaut in space
Ellen Ochoa
STS-56 (Discovery)
April 8–17, 1993
first Hispanic American woman in space
Valery Polyakov
Soyuz TM-18/Mir/Soyuz TM-20
Jan. 8, 1994– March 22, 1995
longest stay in space (438 days)
Sergey Krikalyov
STS-60 (Discovery)
Feb. 3–11, 1994
first Russian on U.S. spacecraft
Eileen Collins
STS-93 (Columbia)
July 23–28, 1999
first female space shuttle commander
Dennis Tito
Soyuz TM-32/ISS/Soyuz TM-31
April 28–May 6, 2001
first space tourist
Jerry Ross
STS-110 (Atlantis)/ISS
April 8–19, 2002
first person to fly into space seven times
Yang Liwei
Shenzhou 5
Oct. 15, 2003
first Chinese astronaut in space
Michael Melvill
SpaceShipOne
June 21, 2004
first private spaceflight
Yi So-Yeon
Soyuz TMA-12/ISS/Soyuz TMA-11
April 8–19, 2008
first Korean astronaut in space
What's Your Reaction?
