James McDivitt

James Alton "Jim" McDivitt was an American former test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut who flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He commanded the Gemini 4 flight during which Ed White ...

John Young

John Watts Young was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Young enjoyed the longest career of any ...

Pavel Belyayev

Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev (Russian: Павел Иванович Беляев; 26 June 1925 – 10 January 1970), was a Soviet fighter pilot with extensive experience in piloting different types of aircraft. He was the first commander of the cosmonaut corps and the ...

Boris Yegorov

Boris Borisovich Yegorov was a Soviet physician-cosmonaut who became the first physician to make a space flight. Yegorov was selected as a member of the multi-disciplinary team that flew on Voskhod 1.

Konstantin Feoktistov

Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov (Russian: Константин Петрович Феоктистов; 7 February 1926 – 21 November 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut and an eminent space engineer. Feoktistov also wrote several books on space technology and exploration. The ...

Vladimir Komarov

Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov (Russian: Влади́мир Миха́йлович Комаро́в; IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr mʲɪˈxaɪləvʲɪtɕ kəmɐˈrof]; 16 March 1927 – 24 April 1967) was a Soviet test pilot, aerospace engineer and cosmonaut in the first group of cosmonauts selected ...

Joseph Walker

Joseph A. Walker was a Chief Research Pilot at the NASA Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center during the mid-1960s. He joined the NACA in March 1945, and served as project pilot at the Edwards flight research facility on such pioneering ...

Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. In order to join the Cosmonaut ...

Valery Bykovsky

Valery Fyodorovich Bykovsky (Russian: Вале́рий Фёдорович Быко́вский; born 2 August 1934) is a retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew three manned space mission space flights: Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, and Soyuz 31. He was also backup for Vostok 3 and Soyuz ...

Leroy Cooper Jr

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 6, 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His interests included treasure hunting, archeology, racing, flying, skiing, boating, hunting and fishing. Gordon Cooper passed away on October 4, 2004, at his home in Ventura, California, ...

Walter Schirra Jr

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 12, 1923, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Died on May 2, 2007. Survivors include his wife, daughter and son. EDUCATION: Newark College of Engineering (N.J.I.T.), 1941; U.S. Naval Academy, 1942-1945 B.S.; Safety Officers ...

Pavel Popovich

Pavel Romanovich Popovich (Russian: Па́вел Рома́нович Попо́вич, Ukrainian: Павло Романович Попович, Pavlo Romanovych Popovych) (October 5, 1930 – September 29, 2009) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was the 4th cosmonaut in space, the 6th person in ...

Andriyan Nikolayev

Nikolayev flew on two space flights: Vostok 3 (effectively becoming the third Soviet cosmonaut) and Soyuz 9. His call sign in these flights was Falcon (Russian: Со́кол). On both, he set new endurance records for the longest time a human being had ...

Malcolm Carpenter

Scott Carpenter, a dynamic pioneer of modern exploration, had the unique distinction of being the first human ever to penetrate both inner and outer space, thereby acquiring the dual title, Astronaut/Aquanaut. Born in Boulder, Colorado, on May ...

What is the difference between a cosmonaut and an astronaut?

Cosmonaut and astronaut are synonyms, that is, theoretically we can use them interchangeably, but traditionally we call people launched into space by the Americans astronauts and by the Russians cosmonauts, regardless of what nationalities they were. That is, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, Italians, French and Germans flying with Americans are astronauts. In contrast, General Hermaszewski, the only (so far) Pole in Space, is called a cosmonaut because he flew as part of the Soviet space program.

Taikonauta (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.