David Hilmers
David Carl Hilmers is a former NASA astronaut. Hilmers was selected a NASA astronaut in July 1980, and completed the initial training period in August 1981. A veteran of four space flights, he has logged over 493 hours in space.
Vladimir Vasyutin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin (Russian:Влaдимиp Bлaдимиpoвич Васютин, born March 8, 1952, Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, died July 19, 2002) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was selected as a cosmonaut on December 1, 1978 (TsPK-6). He ...
Loren Acton
Loren Wilber Acton (born March 7, 1936) is an American physicist who flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-51-F as a Payload Specialist for the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory.
Karl Henize
Karl Gordon Henize, Ph.D. was an American astronomer, space scientist, NASA astronaut, and professor at Northwestern University. Henize was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967. Henize was a mission specialist on the ...
Patrick Baudry
Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry (born March 6, 1946 in Cameroon), is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the French Air Force and a former CNES astronaut. In 1985, he became the second French citizen in space, after Jean-Loup Chrétien, when he flew ...
Shannon Lucid
Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid is an American biochemist and a retired NASA astronaut. At one time, she held the record for the longest duration stay in space by an American, as well as by a woman. She has flown in space five times including a ...
Lodewijk van den Berg
Lodewijk van den Berg born March 24, 1932) was a Dutch American chemical engineer, specializing in crystal growth, who flew on a 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger mission as a Payload Specialist.
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.
