Neil Kornswiet

Since Neil Kornswiet was a young boy in Ohio, he’s been fascinated with all things space and space travel. He watched the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches on his family’s tiny black-and-white TV; he devoured every space-related book he could ...

Franz Haider

For Austrian entrepreneur and world traveler Franz Haider, the dream of becoming an astronaut started at the tender age of 7, when he saw the Apollo 11 Moon landing. His mother cautioned him, however, that his home country had no space program. ...

Robie Vaughn

Robie Vaughn and his wife, Fallon, strive to lead by example, whether in business, philanthropy or adventure. “We’d like to show that you can have fun while trying your best,” he says. “That philosophy applies to just about everything in life.” ...

Lina Borozdina

As a child in Odessa, Ukraine, Lina Borozdina’s dad would tell her bedtime stories about her cousin and her sneaking onto a spaceship as stowaways to go on space adventures. By age 6, she already knew all the constellations and their associated ...

Aleksandr Gorbunov

Born in Zheleznogorsk, Kursk region, Russia, he studied engineering with qualifications in spacecraft and upper stages from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Gorbunov graduated from the military department with a specialty in operation and repair of ...

Taylor Gun-Jin Wang

Taylor Gun-Jin Wang is a Chinese-born American scientist and in 1985, became the first person of Chinese origin to go into space. While an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Wang was a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger ...

Shengjie Tang

Tang Shengjie is a Chinese pilot and astronaut selected as part of the Shenzhou program. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Forces in September 2008, and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in March 2013.

Xinlin Jiang

Jiang Xinlin is a Chinese pilot and astronaut selected as part of the Shenzhou program. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Forces in September 2006, and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in January 2010.

Astronaut 022

Passenger on Galactic 05.

Kellie Gerardi

Kellie Gerardi is an American aerospace, defense, and technology professional and a popular science communicator.

Sol Alan Stern

Sol Alan Stern is an American engineer and planetary scientist. He is the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express.

Marina Vasilevskaya

Belarusian flight attendant selected to fly on Soyuz MS-25 and spend approximately 12 days onboard the International Space Station.

VG Astronaut 018

Trevor Beattie is a British advertising executive. He is a founding partner, chairman and creative director of Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB), and was formerly the chairman and creative director of TBWA London.

VG Astronaut 019

Namira Salim born in Karachi, is a Pakistani polar adventurer, future astronaut and artist based in Monaco and Dubai.

VG Astronaut 017

Ron Rosano is a seasoned space enthusiast and educator with a remarkable 25-year journey inspiring students about space travel. He's slated to fly with Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Space Perspective, and World View, underscoring his ...

Marcus Wandt

Marcus Wandt is a Swedish test pilot and member of the European Space Agency's 2022 astronaut class reserve.

Ken Baxter

Ken "Rocket Man" Baxter (born May 15, 1949) is a real estate investor who purchased the first ticket sold to a civilian to be a passenger on Virgin Galactic in 2004.

Adrian Reynard

Adrian John Reynard is the founder of Reynard Motorsport, which was a successful racing car manufacturer before it went bankrupt in 2002.

Timothy Nash

Passenger on Virgin Galactic 03 launch

Keisha Schahaff

Passenger on Galactic-02, winners of Space for Humanity draw.

Czym się różni kosmonauta od astronauty?

Kosmonauta i astronauta to synonimy, czyli teoretycznie możemy używać ich wymiennie, ale tradycyjnie nazywamy ludzi wyniesionych w kosmos przez amerykanów astronautami, a przez rosjan kosmonautami, niezależnie jakich narodowości byli. Czyli Amerykanie, Kanadyjczycy, Japończycy, Włosi, Francuzi i Niemcy latający z amerykanami to astronauci. Natomiast generała Hermaszewskiego, jedynego (jak dotąd) Polaka w Kosmosie, nazywa się kosmonautą bo poleciał w ramach radzieckiego programu kosmicznego.

Tajkonauta (taikonauta)

A co z chińczykami? Na zachodzie chińczyków w kosmosie nazywają taikonautami. Co ciekawe słowo tajkonuta, z chińskiego "taikong" (czyli przestrzeń kosmiczna) wymyślił najprawdopodobniej dla żartu pod koniec lat 90. malezyjski fan lotów kosmicznych i posłużył się nim w tekście internetowym, co podchwyciły zachodnie media. Sami Chińczycy mówią o swoim astronaucie – yuhangyuan.