PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: astronaut
Korean-American Navy SEAL, doctor, aviator, and astronaut
Jonny Kim is a Korean American Navy SEAL, doctor, aviator, and astronaut who is a member of NASA’s Artemis team, which aims to land humans on the Moon for the first time since 1972. Kim is a lieutenant...
American sculptor and astronaut
Ed Dwight is a sculptor and the first Black American to undergo astronaut training. In May 2024 he became the oldest person to enter space. Dwight was born to Edward Dwight, Sr., and Georgia Baker Dwight,...
American astronaut
Sally Ride was an American astronaut, the first American woman to travel into outer space. Only two other women preceded her: Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982), both from the former...
American biochemist and astronaut
Peggy Whitson is an American biochemist and astronaut, who was the first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and who holds the record among American astronauts and among women for...
Canadian astronaut
Chris Hadfield is a Canadian astronaut who became known for his popular social media posts when he was the first Canadian to command the International Space Station (ISS). He was also the first Canadian...
American astronaut
Sunita Williams is an American astronaut who set records on her three flights to the International Space Station (ISS). In 1983 Williams entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. She was made...
American astronaut
Neil Armstrong was a U.S. astronaut, and the first person to set foot on the Moon. Neil Armstrong was the eldest of three children born to Viola Louise Engel and Stephen Koenig Armstrong, a state auditor....
American astronaut
Stephanie Wilson is an American astronaut who has made three spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS) on the space shuttle Discovery and is part of the Artemis team of astronauts who are to...
American astronaut and United States senator
John Glenn was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, had made a single orbit of Earth in 1961.) Glenn joined...
Indian fighter pilot and astronaut
Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair is one of the four astronauts selected for India’s Gaganyaan crewed space mission to low Earth orbit, planned for 2025. A test and fighter pilot of group captain rank in the...
American astronaut and Air Force officer
Susan Helms is a U.S. astronaut and Air Force officer who was the first U.S. military woman in space (1993) and, with astronaut James Voss, performed the longest space walk (2001). Helms received a bachelor’s...
Indian-born American astronaut
Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut and the first woman of Indian origin to go to space. She flew two missions aboard the space shuttle Columbia: first in 1997 and in the shuttle’s final...
British astronaut and military officer
Tim Peake is a British astronaut and military officer who in 2016, while on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), became the first official British astronaut to walk in space. Peake was reared...
Japanese engineer and astronaut
Koichi Wakata is a Japanese astronaut who accumulated a number of records during his career. Among them, he spent the longest time in space of anyone who was not an American astronaut or a Russian cosmonaut,...
Indian astronaut
Shubhanshu Shukla is an Indian astronaut who is part of the Gaganyaan program, which will send India’s first astronauts into space in their own crewed vehicle, and who is scheduled to launch to the International...
Swiss test pilot and astronaut
Claude Nicollier is a Swiss test pilot and astronaut, the first Swiss citizen to travel into space. Nicollier qualified as a pilot in the Swiss air force in 1966. He earned a B.S. in physics from the University...
American astronaut and administrator
Ellen Ochoa is an American administrator and former astronaut who was the first Hispanic woman to travel into space (1993). She later served as director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (2013–18). Ochoa...
United States senator
Bill Nelson is an American Democratic politician who represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2019. He had previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1979–91). Nelson was the second...
American astronaut and United States senator
Mark Kelly is an American astronaut and politician who served in the U.S. Senate (2020– ), representing Arizona. He is the identical twin brother of astronaut Scott Kelly. Mark Kelly received a bachelor’s...
Russian pilot and cosmonaut
Aleksandr Volkov is a Russian pilot and cosmonaut, the first cosmonaut whose son also went into space. Volkov graduated from the Chuguyev Higher Air Force School in Kharkov province in Ukraine, U.S.S.R.,...
American astronaut
Jessica Meir is an American astronaut and scientist. In 2020, Meir was chosen to be one of the 18 astronauts in the Artemis program. Artemis is the first U.S. space program since 1972 that will send astronauts...
American astronaut
Kjell Lindgren is an American astronaut who has made two spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS) and is part of the Artemis team of astronauts eligible to fly to the Moon in the mid-2020s....
Russian pilot and cosmonaut
Sergey Volkov is a Russian military pilot and cosmonaut—the first second-generation cosmonaut, following his father, Aleksandr Volkov, into space. Volkov graduated from the Tambov Marina Raskova Air Force...
American astronaut
Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. was a U.S. Air Force major who was the first African American astronaut in the U.S. space program. However, he died in a fighter jet crash before getting the opportunity to fly...
Saudi royal and astronaut
Sultan ibn Salman Al Saud is an astronaut who was the first Saudi Arabian citizen, the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first member of a royal family to travel into space. Educated in the United...
American astronaut
Joseph Acaba is an American astronaut who, over three spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS), has spent 306 days in space. He is part of the Artemis team of astronauts who are eligible to...
American astronaut
Buzz Aldrin is an American astronaut who was the second person to set foot on the Moon. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York (1951), Aldrin became an air force pilot. He flew 66...
American astronaut
Anne McClain is an American astronaut who made two flights to the International Space Station (ISS), the first in December 2019 and the second in March 2025. McClain graduated in 2002 from the U.S. Military...
American physician and astronaut
Mae Jemison is an American physician and the first African American woman to become an astronaut. In 1992, she spent more than a week orbiting Earth in the space shuttle Endeavour. Jemison moved with her...
United States pilot and astronaut
Eileen Collins is an American astronaut, the first woman to pilot and, later, to command a U.S. space shuttle. Collins’s love of airplanes and flying began as a child. At age 19 she saved money earned...
Spanish aeronautical engineer and astronaut
Pedro Duque is a Spanish aeronautical engineer and astronaut who became the first Spanish citizen to go into space. Duque received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Universidad Politécnica...
Japanese astronaut
Norishige Kanai is a Japanese medical doctor and astronaut who began a stay of about six months at the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2017. (See also space exploration.) Kanai was born in...
American astronaut
Kate Rubins is an American astronaut who has made two flights to the International Space Station (ISS). As a child, Rubins was interested in becoming an astronaut, and her growing interest in science led...
American astronaut
Nicole Aunapu Mann is an American astronaut who was the first Indigenous woman to go into space. Mann is a member of the Wailacki tribe of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of northern California. Mann was...
American teacher and astronaut
Barbara Morgan is an American teacher and astronaut, the first teacher to travel into space. Morgan earned a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1973. She received her...
American astronaut
Alan B. Shepard, Jr. was the first U.S. astronaut to travel in space. Shepard graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1944 and served in the Pacific during World War II onboard the...
American astronaut
Michael Collins was a U.S. astronaut who was the command module pilot of Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing mission. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, Collins transferred...
American astronaut
Thomas Stafford was an American astronaut who flew two Gemini rendezvous missions (1965–66) and commanded the Apollo 10 mission (1969)—the final test of Apollo systems before the first crewed landing on...
Polish pilot
Mirosław Hermaszewski is a Polish pilot who was the first Pole in space. A 1965 graduate of the military pilot school in Deblin, Hermaszewski entered the Polish air force and in 1971 graduated from the...
American astronaut
John W. Young was a U.S. astronaut who participated in the Gemini, Apollo, and space shuttle programs. He was the first astronaut to make five—and later the first to make six—spaceflights. He served as...
Canadian astronaut
Robert Thirsk is the first Canadian astronaut to make a long-duration spaceflight. Thirsk received bachelor’s and master’s degrees, respectively, in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary...
American physicist and astronaut
Ronald McNair was an American physicist and astronaut who was killed in the Challenger disaster. McNair received a bachelor’s degree in physics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University,...
American astronaut
David Scott is a U.S. astronaut who was the commander of the Apollo 15 mission to the Moon. After graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1954, Scott transferred to the U.S. Air Force...
Soviet cosmonaut
Valentina Tereshkova is a Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to travel into space. On June 16, 1963, she was launched in the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours. In space at the...
French cosmonaut, doctor, and politician
Claudie Haigneré is a French cosmonaut, doctor, and politician who was the first French woman in space (1996). Haigneré graduated as a rheumatologist from Faculté de Médecine and Faculté des Sciences in...
American astronaut
Charles Bolden is an American astronaut who served as the first African American administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 2009 to 2017. Bolden received a bachelor’s...
American astronaut
Jessica Watkins is an American astronaut who spent six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022 and has been chosen for the Artemis program, which will return Americans to the Moon in...
Afghan pilot and cosmonaut
Abdul Ahad Mohmand is an Afghan pilot and cosmonaut, the first Afghan citizen to travel into space. Mohmand was educated in Afghanistan and later attended the Gagarin Military Air Academy in Monino, U.S.S.R....
Canadian neurologist, researcher, and astronaut
Roberta Bondar is a Canadian neurologist, researcher, and astronaut. She was the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist to travel into space. Bondar earned a B.Sc. in zoology and agriculture from...
American astronaut
Jim Lovell is a U.S. astronaut of the Gemini and Apollo space programs, and was the commander of the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 flight to the Moon in 1970. Lovell, a graduate (1952) of the U.S. Naval...
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