Aleksandr Poleshchuk
Aleksandr Fyodorovich Poleshchuk (Russian: Александр Фёдорович Полещук, born October 30, 1953) is a Russian cosmonaut. In February 1989 he was selected as a test cosmonaut candidate (1989 Cosmonaut Candidates Class, Group 14, Civil Specialists). ...
Phạm Tuân
Phạm Tuân (born February 14, 1947) is a retired Vietnam Air Force aviator. He became the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flew aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut. Tuân reached the rank ...
Philippe Perrin
Philippe Perrin (Colonel, French Air Force) (born January 6, 1963) is a French test pilot and former CNES and European Space Agency astronaut. He served as a mission specialist on the STS-111 mission in 2002 and logged over 332 hours in space, ...
Gennady Padalka
Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (Russian: Гeннадий Иванович Падалка; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Russia) is a Russian Air Force officer and an RKA cosmonaut. Padalka currently has the world record for the most time spent in space, having spent 879 ...
Aleksey Ovchinin
Aleksey Nikolayevich Ovchinin born 28 September 1971 in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian SFSR is a Russian Air Force Major and cosmonaut, who was selected in 2006. Ovchinin made his first spaceflight in 2016, and was assigned as Commander of ...
Yury Onufriyenko
Col. Yuri Ivanovich Onufriyenko (Russian: Юрий Иванович Онуфриенко, Ukrainian: Юрій Іванович Онуфрієнко) (born 6 February 1961) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. He is a veteran of two extended spaceflights, aboard the space station Mir in 1996 and ...
Takuya Onishi
Takuya Onishi (大西 卓哉 Ōnishi Takuya, born 1975) is a Japanese astronaut selected for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2009.[1] He spent four months onboard the International Space Station in 2016.
Grigori Nelyubov
Grigori Grigoryevich Nelyubov (Russian: Григо́рий Григо́рьевич Нелю́бов; March 31, 1934 – February 18, 1966) was one of the original 20 Soviet cosmonauts, who was dismissed from the Soviet space program in 1963 for drunk and disorderly conduct. ...
James F. Reilly
James Francis Reilly II is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. He flew on three space shuttle missions: STS-89, STS-104 and STS-117.
Abdul Ahad Mohmand
Abdul Ahad Mohmand (Pashto: عبدالاحد مومند; born January 1, 1959) is a former Afghan Air Force aviator who became the first Afghan citizen and fourth Muslim to journey to outer space. He became one of Soyuz TM-6 crew members and spent nine days ...
Alexander Misurkin
Alexander Alexanderovich Misurkin (Russian: Aлександр Aлександрович Мисуркин) born on September 23, 1977, a major in the Russian Air Force, is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He flew aboard Soyuz TMA-08M on 28 March 2013 as his first space ...
Yury Malyshev
Yury Vasilyevich Malyshev (Russian: Ю́рий Васи́льевич Ма́лышев) was born in the village Nikolayevsk, Stalingrad Oblast (Volgograd Oblast), USSR, on 27 August 1941. He was Commander of Soyuz T-2 (5–9 June 1980) and Soyuz T-11 (3–11 April 1984).
Ravish Malhotra
Ravish Malhotra (born 25 December 1943 born in Lahore, British India is a retired Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force. In 1982, he was chosen to train for spaceflight in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos program. Malhotra served as backup ...
Steve MacLean
Steven Glenwood MacLean FRCGS (born December 14, 1954) is a Canadian astronaut. MacLean served as a Mission Specialist on STS-115, which launched on September 9, 2006, and returned on September 21, 2006. He became the first Canadian to operate ...
Yury Lonchakov
Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov (Russian: Юрий Валентинович Лончаков; born 4 March 1965) is a Russian former cosmonaut and a veteran of three space missions. He has spent 200 days in space and has conducted two career spacewalks.
Vasily Lazarev
Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev (Russian: Васи́лий Григо́рьевич Ла́зарев; February 23, 1928 – December 31, 1990) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 12 spaceflight as well as the abortive Soyuz 18a launch in April 5, 1975.
Sergei Krikalev
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (Russian: Серге́й Константинович Крикалёв, also transliterated as Sergei Krikalyov; born August 27, 1958) is a Russian cosmonaut and mechanical engineer. As a prominent rocket scientist, he is a veteran of six ...
Yevgeny Khrunov
Yevgeni Vassilyevich Khrunov (Russian: Евге́ний Васи́льевич Хруно́в; September 10, 1933 – May 20, 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/Soyuz 4 mission.
Carlos I. Noriega
Carlos Ismael Noriega is a Peruvian and U.S. citizen, NASA employee, a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.
Albert Sacco
Albert Sacco Jr. (born May 3, 1949) is an American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.
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.
