Andrew Thomas

PERSONAL DATA: Born December 18, 1951, in Adelaide, South Australia. Married to Astronaut Shannon Walker. He enjoys horse riding and jumping, mountain biking, running, wind surfing, and classical guitar playing. His father, Adrian C. Thomas, ...

Umberto Guidoni

Umberto Guidoni (born 18 August 1954 in Rome) is an Italian astrophysicist, science writer and a former ESA astronaut, being the first European to visit the International Space Station. He is a veteran of two NASA space shuttle missions.

Maurizio Cheli

Personal data Born 4 May 1959, in Modena, Italy. Married to the former Marianne Merchez. He enjoys soccer, cycling, tennis and travelling. His mother Eulalia resides in Zocca (Modena), Italy. Her parents, Marcel and Annie Merchez, reside in ...

Scott Horowitz

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 24, 1957, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but considers Thousand Oaks, California, to be his hometown. Married to the former Lisa Marie Kern. They have three children. He enjoys designing, building, and flying home-built ...

Yuri Onufriyenko

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 6, 1961 in Ryasnoe, Zolochev district, Kharkov region, Ukraine. Married to Valentina Mikhailovna Onufrienko (nee Ryabovol). Two sons and one daughter. His parents are deceased. He has two older brothers. Yuri enjoys ...

Daniel Barry

PERSONAL DATA: Born December 30, 1953, in Norwalk, Connecticut, but considers South Hadley, Massachusetts, to be his hometown. Enjoys flying, tennis, running. EDUCATION: Graduated from Bolton High School, Alexandria, Louisiana, in 1971; ...

Koichi Wakata

Koichi Wakata (若田 光一 Wakata Kōichi, born 1 August 1963) is a Japanese engineer and a JAXA astronaut. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. ...

Winston Scott

PERSONAL: Born August 6, 1950, in Miami, Florida. Married to the former Marilyn K. Robinson. They have two children. He enjoys martial arts and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Shotokan karate. He also enjoys music, and plays trumpet with various ...

Brent Jett Jr

PERSONAL DATA: Born October 5, 1958, in Pontiac, Michigan. Hometown: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Married to Janet Leigh Lyon of Patuxent River, Maryland. EDUCATION: Earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. ...

Chris Hadfield

Personal Profile: Born August 29, 1959, in Sarnia, and raised in Milton, Ontario. Colonel Chris Hadfield is married to Helene Hadfield (née Walter). They have three children. He enjoys skiing, playing guitar, singing, riding, writing, running, ...

Albert Sacco Jr

PERSONAL DATA: Born on May 3, 1949, in Boston, Massachusetts. Married the former Teran Lee Gardner, of Massachusetts, in November 1971. They have four children. He enjoys jogging, reading, walking, and is an avid scuba diver and a certified scuba ...

Frederick Leslie

PERSONAL DATA: Born December 19, 1951, in Ancon, Panama. Fred and wife Kathy reside in Huntsville, Alabama. With more than 5,500 parachute jumps, he enjoys skydiving and has earned multiple world records as a participant in large freefall ...

Miguel López-Alegría

PERSONAL DATA: Born May 30, 1958, in Madrid, Spain, and grew up in Mission Viejo, California. Lopez-Alegria enjoys sports, traveling and cooking and is interested in national and international political, economics and security affairs. ...

Catherine Coleman

Coleman graduated from Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1978;[1] in 1978–1979 she was an exchange student at Røyken upper secondary school in Norway with the AFS Intercultural Programs. She received a bachelor of science ...

Kent Rominger

PERSONAL DATA: Born August 7, 1956, in Del Norte, Colorado. Married to the former Mary Sue Rule. They have one child. He enjoys snow skiing, water skiing, horseback riding, and running. His parents, Mr. & Mrs. R. Vernon Rominger, reside in Del ...

Michael Gernhardt

PERSONAL DATA: Born May 4, 1956, in Mansfield, Ohio. He enjoys running, swimming, flying, fishing, and scuba diving. His father, George M. Gernhardt is deceased. His mother, Suzanne C. Winters, resides in Whitestone, Virginia. HONORS: NASA ...

Thomas Reiter

Thomas Arthur Reiter (born 23 May 1958 in Frankfurt, West Germany) is a retired European astronaut and is a Brigadier General in the German Air Force currently working as ESA Interagency Coordinator and Advisor to the Director General at the ...

Yuri Gidzenko

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 26, 1962, in the village of Elanets, Nikolaev region, the USSR. Married to Gidzenko, Olga Vladimirovna, born in 1961. They have two sons: Sergei and Alexei. EDUCATION: Yuri Gidzenko graduated from the Higher Military ...

Mary Weber

PERSONAL DATA: Dr. Weber was born in 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio; Bedford Heights, Ohio is her hometown. She is married to Dr. Jerome Elkind, who is originally from Bayonne, New Jersey. She is an avid skydiver and golfer, and also enjoys scuba ...

Kevin Kregel

PERSONAL DATA: Born September 16, 1956. Grew up in Amityville, New York. Married to the former Jeanne F. Kammer of Farmingdale, New York. They have four children. His parents, Alfred H. Kregel Jr., and Frances T. Kregel, are deceased. ...

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.