John B. McKay

John Barron McKay was an American naval officer, World War II pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and astronaut. He flew the X-15 experimental spaceplane to over 50 miles in altitude on Flight 150.

Michael J. Adams

Michael James Adams was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, and USAF astronaut. He flew X-15 Flight 191 to over 50 miles altitude, however the flight ended when the spacecraft broke apart, leading to his death.

William J. Knight

William John "Pete" Knight was an American aeronautical engineer, politician, Vietnam War combat pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He flew the X-15 experimental spaceplane to over 50 miles altitude on Flight 190.

Robert A. Rushworth

Robert Aitken "Bob" Rushworth was an American United States Air Force major general, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War pilot, mechanical and aeronautical engineer, test pilot and astronaut. He flew the X-15 experimental ...

William H. Dana

William Harvey "Bill" Dana was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force pilot, NASA test pilot, and astronaut. He flew on X-15 Flight 174 and Flight 197, both of which passed 50 miles in altitude.

Robert M. White

Robert Michael "Bob" White was an American electrical engineer, test pilot, fighter pilot, and astronaut who was one of twelve pilots that flew in the X-15 experimental spaceplane.

Oliver Daemen

Dutch high school graduate whose father won the second place at the auction for New Shepard's first crewed flight. At only 18, he is the youngest person to go to space.

Colin Bennett

Colin Bennett is an American engineer who worked at Virgin Atlantic Airways before joining Virgin Galactic in 2015 where he now acts as Lead Astronaut Instructor.

Sirisha Bandla

Sirisha Bandla is an American engineer who worked at Virgin Galactic between from 2015 until 2020 when she joined Virgin Orbit. She is back at Virgin Galactic since 2021 as Vice President of Government Affairs.

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate and founder of the Virgin Group. He later founded both Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit.

Wally Funk

Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk is an American aviator and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, ...

Tang Hongbo

Tang Hongbo (Chinese: 汤洪波; pinyin: Tāng Hóngbō) is a Chinese pilot selected as part of the Shenzhou program. He was born in Xiangtan, Hunan. A pilot in the People's Liberation Army Air Force, he was selected to be an astronaut in 2010.

Mark Bezos

Mark Bezos is the Founder and General Partner at HighPost Capital and Director of Bezos Family Foundation. Apart from this, he is also Senior Vice President of Communication and Marketing events at Robin Hood Foundation, a poverty-fighting ...

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is an American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor known for being the founder and CEO of the multi-national technology company Amazon. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000.

John Shoffner

John Shoffner is an American space tourist. He is according to Axiom Space a pilot, champion GT racer, and active supporter of life science research from Knoxville, Tennessee. Before creating his own motorsports team J2-Racing with his wife ...

William Brian Binnie

William Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo

Doug Shane

Douglas Bennett Shane is President of The Spaceship Company, as well as an American test pilot who has trained as a commercial astronaut. He was a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the ...

Clint Nichols

Clint Nichols is an Aerospace Engineer and Test Pilot for Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceflight program. Birthdate is unknown.

Mark Stucky

Mark P. "Forger" Stucky was an American test pilot and commercial astronaut for Virgin Galactic. He left the company in July 2021.

Michael Alsbury

Michael Tyner Alsbury was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. On October 31, 2014, Alsbury was test flying the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise with Peter Siebold. The craft broke up in-flight, resulting in a total loss of ...

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.