John S. Bull

John Sumter Bull, Ph.D. was an American naval officer and aviator, fighter pilot, test pilot, mechanical and aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov

Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov (Russian: Оле́г Григо́рьевич Мака́ров) (6 January 1933 – 28 May 2003) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was originally part of the Soviet lunar program and was training with Aleksei Leonov for the first manned circumlunar ...

Valeri Kubasov

Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov (Russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Куба́сов; 7 January 1935 – 19 February 2014) was a Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who flew on two missions in the Soyuz programme as a flight engineer: Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 19 (the Apollo–Soyuz ...

Leonid Kadeniuk

Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk (Ukrainian: Леонід Костянтинович Каденюк, 28 January 1951 – 31 January 2018) was the first astronaut of independent Ukraine. He flew on NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as part of the international ...

Yury Artyukhin

Yury Petrovich Artyukhin (Russian: Ю́рий Петро́вич Артю́хин; June 22, 1930 – August 4, 1998) was a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and engineer who made a single flight into space. Artyukhin graduated from the Soviet Air Force Institute with a ...

Wally Schirra

Walter Marty Schirra Jr. was an American naval aviator and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put human beings in space. On October ...

John Glenn

Colonel John Herschel Glenn Jr. was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he ...

Scott Carpenter

Malcolm Scott Carpenter, was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the ...

Yury Glazkov

Yury Nikolayevich Glazkov (Russian: Ю́рий Никола́евич Глазко́в; 2 October 1939 – 9 December 2008) was a Soviet Air Force officer and a cosmonaut. Glazkov held the rank of major general in the Russian Air Force.

Gene Cernan

Eugene Andrew Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon. Since he re-entered the lunar ...

Georgy Beregovoy

Georgy Timofeyevich Beregovoy (Russian: Гео́ргий Тимофе́евич Берегово́й, Ukrainian: Гео́ргій Тимофі́йович Берегови́й; April 15, 1921 – June 30, 1995) was a Soviet cosmonaut who commanded the space mission Soyuz 3 in 1968. At the time of his ...

Duane Graveline

Duane Edgar Graveline was an American physician and NASA astronaut. He was one of the six scientists selected in 1965, in NASA's fourth group of astronauts, for the Apollo program. He was best known for being immersed in water for seven days ...

Owen K. Garriott

Owen Kay Garriott is an American electrical engineer and former NASA astronaut, who spent 60 days aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 during the Skylab 3 mission, and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 on a Space Shuttle mission in 1983.

Rodolfo Neri Vela

Rodolfo Neri Vela (born 19 February 1952) is a Mexican scientist and astronaut who flew aboard a NASA Space Shuttle mission in the year 1985. He is the first Mexican, and the second Latin American to have traveled to space.

Mannequin Skywalker

"Mannequin Skywalker" is a test dummy flown on Blue Origin New Shepard 3's initial flight test.

Starman

"Starman" is a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit occupying the driver's seat of Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, launched to an heliocentric orbit on Falcon Heavy's inaugural launch.

Ripley

Ripley is an Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD), named as a homage to Sigourney Weaver's character in the Alien movies franchise, launched aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon for its inaugural flight to the International Space Station and back.

Little Earth

"Little Earth" is the nickname of a Celestial Buddies plushtoy brought to the International Space Station aboard the first SpaceX Crew Dragon on its inaugural flight. It was used as a "Zero-Gravity Indicator" aboard the Crew ...

Gordon Cooper

Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space program of the United States. ...

Nikolay Rukavishnikov

Nikolay Nikolayevich Rukavishnikov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew three space missions of the Soyuz programme: Soyuz 10, Soyuz 16, and Soyuz 33. Two of these missions, Soyuz 10 and Soyuz 33 were intended to dock with Salyut space stations, but ...

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.