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Astronaut Birthdays for January


GordonD

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JANUARY 1ST

 

These should be taken with a pinch of salt as there are so many people supposedly born on January 1st that I suspect that for some of them only the month is known and January 1st has been used as a placeholder. (The same is true to a lesser extent for the first day of the other months, so it's possible even that for some of the more obscure names below only the actual year is known.) So with that in mind, here goes:

 

Aleksandr Petrushenko (1942) USSR

Selected October 1965; retired 1973. Died 11 November 1992. No flights.


Gennady Sarafanov (1942) USSR

Selected October 1965. Flew as Commander on Soyuz 15, 26 - 28 August 1974 (2d 0h 12m)

Retired July 1986. Died 29 September 2005


Vladimir Titov (1947) USSR

Selected August 1976. Four flights:

Commander Soyuz T-8, 20 - 22 April 1983 (2d 0h 17m);

Commander Soyuz TM-4/Mir Expedition 3, 21 Dec. 1987 - 21 Dec. 1988 (365d 22h 38m);

Mission Specialist STS-63, 3 - 11 Feb 1995 (8d 6h 28m);

Mission Specialist STS-86, 26 Sep - 6 Oct 1997 (10d 19h 20m).

Total flight time 387d 0h 43m.

 

He was also Commander on the original Soyuz T-10, which aborted from the launch pad when the rocket caught fire.

Retired August 1998


Nagapathi Bhat (1948) India

Selected November 2002 as Payload Specialist for an INSAT mission to be flown on the Shuttle; mission was cancelled following the Challenger accident. No flights


Nikolai Moskalenko (1949) USSR

Selected August 1976; retired 1986. Died 25 November 2004. No flights.


Yevgeni Saley (1950) USSR

Selected August 1976; retired 1987. No flights.


Sergei Avdeyev (1956) USSR

Selected March 1987. Three flights:

Flight Engineer Soyuz TM-15/Mir Expedition 12, 27 July 1992 - 1 Feb 1993 (188d 21h 39m);

Flight Engineer Soyuz TM-22/Mir Expedition 20, 3 Sep 1995 - 29 Feb 1996 (179d 1h 41m);

Flight Engineer Soyuz TM-28/Mir Expedition 26/27, 13 Aug 1998 - 28 Aug 1999 (379d 14h 51m),

Total flight time 747d 14h 11m.

Retired February 2003


Anatoli Polonsky (1956) USSR

Selected January 1989; retired April 1991. No flights.


Abdul Mohmand (1959) Afghanistan

Selected February 1988.

Research Cosmonaut on Soyuz TM-6/Mir 29 Aug - 7 Sep 1988 (8d 20h 26m) 


Mukhtar Aymakhanov (1967) Kazakhstan

Selected November 2002. Active but no flights to date.

 

 

 

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  • GordonD changed the title to Astronaut Birthdays for January

JANUARY 3RD

 

Anatoli Kuklin (1932) USSR

Selected 1963; was Backup Commander for Soyuz 5 but never flew; retired July 1975 for medical reasons.

Died 16 January 2006

 

Sergei Protchenko (1947) USSR

Selected 1976; no flights; retired April 1979 for medical reasons.

 

Vladimir Steklov (1949) USSR

Russian film actor; selected 1997 when there were plans to make a film aboard Mir. Did the cosmonaut training but the film was cancelled in March 2000 when the funding could not be raised.

 

Fyodor Yurchikhin (1959) Russia

Selected 1997; has made five flights:

STS-112, 7 - 18 October 2002 (10d 19h 58m)

Soyuz TMA-10/ISS Expedition 15, 7 April - 21 Oct. 2007 (196d 17h 4m)

Soyuz TMA-19/ISS Expeditions 24/25, 15 June - 26 Nov. 2010 (163d 7h 11m)

Soyuz TMA-09M/ISS Expeditions 36/37, 28 May - 11 Nov. 2013 (166d 6h 17m)

Soyuz MS-04/ISS Expeditions 51/52, 20 April - 3 Sep. 2017 (135d 18h 8m)

Total flight time 672d 20h 38m

 

Also Backup on Soyuz TMA-8, TMA-07M and MS-03.

 

Still active.

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

 

 

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JANUARY 4TH

 

Kenneth Money (1935) Canada

Selected 1983; was Backup Payload Specialist on STS-42 (International Microgravity Laboratory 1)

Retired 1992

 

Christopher Cassidy (1970) USA

Selected 2004 (NASA Group 19)

STS-127, 15 - 31 July 2009 (15d 16h 45m)

Soyuz TMA-08M/ISS Expedition 35/36 (166d 6h 15m)

Total flight time 181d 23h

 

Also Backup for Soyuz TMA-06M

 

Still active

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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JANUARY 6TH

 

Oleg Makarov (1933) USSR

Selected 1968

Soyuz 12, 27 - 29 September 1973 (1d 23h 15m)

Soyuz 18-1, 5 April 1975 (21 min - mission aborted during launch phase)

Soyuz 27/Salyut 6 Taxi Flight 1, 10 - 16 Jan 1978  (5d 22h 58m)

Soyuz T-3/Salyut 6 Visiting Flight 5, 27 Nov - 10 Dec 1980 (12d 19h 7m)

Total flight time 20d 17h 41m

Died 28 May 2003


Guy Gardner (1948) USA

Selected 1980 (NASA Group 9)

Named for STS-62A, would have been first Shuttle flight out of Vandenberg AFB; mission cancelled following Challenger accident

STS-27, 2 - 6 Dec 1988 (4d 9h 5m)

STS-35, 2 - 11 Dec 1990 (8d 23h 5m)

Total flight time 13d 8h 10m

Retired 1991


Michael Foale (1957) USA

Born Louth, Lincolnshire - has dual USA/UK citizenship so not classed as a 'British' astronaut

Selected 1987 (NASA Group 12)

STS-45, 24 March - 2 April 1992 (8d 22h 9m)

STS-56, 8 - 17 April 1993 (9d 6h 18m)

STS-63, 3 - 11 Feb 1995 (8d 6h 28m)

STS-84/Mir Expedition 23/24, 15 May - 6 Oct 1997 (144d 13h 47m) - was aboard Mir at the time of the Progress M-34 collision

STS-103, 20 - 28 Dec 1999 (7d 23h 10m)

Soyuz TMA-3/ISS Expedition 8, 18 Dec 2003 - 30 Apr 2004 (194d 18h 33m)

Total flight time 373d 18h 15m

Retired 2013


Philippe Perrin (1963) France

Selected 1990

STS-111. 5 - 19 June 2002 (13d 20h 35m)

Retired 2004


David Saint-Jacques (1970) Canada

Selected 2009. Active but no flights to date

 

 

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(Writing this having only just learned of the death of John Young)

 

JANUARY 7TH

 

Valeri Kubasov (1935) USSR

Selected 1968

Soyuz 6, 11 - 16 October 1969 (4d 22h 42m)

Soyuz 19, 15 - 21 July 1975 (5d 22h 30m) - the Apollo-Soyuz mission

Soyuz 36/Salyut 6 Taxi Flight 3, 26 May - 3 June 1980 (7d 20h 45m)

Total flight time 18d 17h 58m

Died 19 February 2014

 

Drew Gregory (1941) USA

Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8)

STS-51B/Spacelab 3, 29 April - 6 May 1985 (7d 0h 8m)

STS-33, 22 - 27 Nov. 1989 (5d 0h 6m)

STS-44, 24 Nov - 1 Dec 1991 (6d 22h 50m)

Total flight time 18d 23h 4m

Resigned from flight status April 1992

 

Aleksei Khomenchuk (1975) Russia

Selected 2010; resigned from cosmonaut group 2012

No flights

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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JANUARY 8th

 

Vyacheslav Zudov (1942) USSR

Selected 1965

Soyuz 23, 14 - 16 October 1976 (2d 0h 6m)

Retired May 1987

 

Taufik Akbar (1951) Indonesia

Involved in the development of the Palapa satellite system

Selected as backup for a Shuttle deployment flight; cancelled following the Challenger accident.

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JANUARY 11TH

 

Lev Demin (1926) USSR

Selected 1963

Soyuz 15, 26 - 28th August 1974 (2d 0h 12m)

Retired 1982

Died 18 December 1998

 

Also served as backup for Soyuz 14

 

* Soyuz 15 was supposed to dock with the Salyut 3 military space station but a failure in the automatic rendezvous system meant this could not take place and the cosmonauts returned to Earth. Rather than admit to a failure, the Soviet authorities initially claimed that the mission had been intended to test the psychological compatibility of two men with a wide age-gap (Demin was 48; his colleague was only 32). When Western observers scoffed at this, the claim was made that Soyuz 15 had been testing emergency night-landing procedures!

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6 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Keep up the good work. I'm enjoying this thread.

 

21 minutes ago, GrahamS said:

Seconded! Great thread.

 

Graham

Thanks, guys. Nice to know it's appreciated!

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JANUARY 12TH

 

Vladimir Kozelsky (1942) USSR

Selected 1967

Backup for Soyuz 24

Retired April 1983; no flights


Anatoli Sokovykh (1944) USSR

Selected 1979

Discharged from cosmonaut group 1986 for disciplinary reasons following an aircraft crashlanding; no flights


Sergei Revin (1966) Russia

Selected 1996

Soyuz TMA-04M/ISS Expedition 31/32, 15 May - 17 September 2012 (124d 23h 51m)

 

Also backup for Soyuz TMA-22

Retired April 2017

 

Also please see the addition to yesterday's post - I didn't have last year's NASA intake on my list! :wub:

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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JANUARY 13TH

 

Aleksandr Kiselyov (1934) USSR

Selected 1965; a medical doctor who possibly would have flown on a long-duration Voskhod mission but these were cancelled in favour of the Soyuz programme.

Retired 1966


Rakesh Sharma (1949) India

Selected 1982

Soyuz T-11/Salyut 7 Taxi Flight, 3 - 11 April 1984 (7d 21h 40m) - performed various yoga postures in orbit while the electrical activity of his muscles was measured.

Retired April 1984

 

 

* Taxi flights were designed to allow crews to remain in orbit longer than the 'shelf life' of the Soyuz spacecraft, which was around six or seven months. After that systems failures would become more likely, which is obviously undesirable! They were used extensively during the days of Salyut 6 and 7 and Mir, and the early ISS operations. A crew would visit the space station for a week or so then return to Earth in the Soyuz which was already docked, leaving their own fresher spacecraft behind for the eventual use of the long-term residents. Sharma, for instance, landed aboard Soyuz T-10, which had been launched in February. The Soyuz T-11 capsule, carrying the original T-10 crew, landed at the beginning of October.

 

As technology progressed and uprated versions of the Soyuz became available, with longer 'shelf lives', these are no longer required.

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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JANUARY 14TH

 

Valeri Makrushin (1940) USSR

Selected 1972; was in training for a TKS mission (the manned version of a space station module) but the programme was cancelled. Retired 1987; no flights

 

Shannon Lucid (1943) USA

Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8)

STS-51G, 17 - 24 June 1985 (7d 1h 38m)

STS-34, 18 - 23 October 1989 (4d 23h 39m)

STS-43, 2 - 11 August 1991 (8d 21h 21m)

STS-58, 18 October - 1 November 1993 (14d 0h 12m)

STS-76/Mir Resident, 22 March - 26 September 1996 (188d 4h 0m) - landed aboard STS-79

Total flight time 223d 2h 50m

Retired 2012

 

Jeffrey Detroye (1955) USA

Selected 1979 (USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 1)

Retired 1985; no flights

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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1 hour ago, Eric Mc said:

It's always interesting to  see the astronauts and cosmonauts who "retired" without having made a single flight.

Agreed. That is why the Spacefacts website is such a gem - details of the people who have actually flown missions is available anywhere but the guys behind that site have come up with a lot of really obscure names. Did you know that the USA selected astronauts before the Mercury Seven? There was an Air Force project called Man In Space Soonest (MISS) and nine pilots were chosen, but the programme was cancelled when NASA was formed. One of those pilots was Neil Armstrong...

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12 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Did Armstrong put his name forward for Mercury? 

Not that I'm aware of. He was part of the X-15 team when the Mercury call went out but that wouldn't have stopped him putting his name forward.

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JANUARY 15TH

 

Robert Stevenson (1921) USA

Selected 1984 as a US Navy Civil Observer. He was assigned to fly on STS-41G but dropped out when his wife became seriously ill. Later assigned to STS-61K but that mission was cancelled after the Challenger accident. Died of cancer in August 2001.

 

He had previously advised the crew of Gemini 12 on oceanography. 

 

Anatoli Ivanishin (1969) Russia

Selected 2003

Soyuz TMA-22/ISS Expeditions 29/30, 14 November 2011 - 27 April 2012 (165d 7h 31m)

Soyuz MS-01/ISS Expeditions 48/49, 7 July - 30 October 2016 (115d 2h 21m)

Total flight time to date 280d 9h 52m

Still on active flight status

 

Also Backup on Soyuz TMA-20 in 2010, Soyuz TMA-21 in 2011 and Soyuz TMA-19M in 2015

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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JANUARY 16TH

 

Michael Coats (1946) USA

Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8)

STS-41D, 30 August - 5 September 1984 (6d 0h 56m)

STS-29, 13 - 18 March 1989 (4d 23h 38m)

STS-39, 28 April - 6 May 1991 (8d 7h 22m)

Total flight time 19h 7h 56m

Retired 1991

 

Anatoli Solovyov (1948) USSR

Selected 1976

Soyuz TM-5/Mir Taxi Flight, 7 - 17 June 1988 (9d 20h 9m) - landed aboard Soyuz TM-4

Soyuz TM-9/Mir Expedition 6, 11 February - 9 August 1990 (179d 1h 17m)

Soyuz TM-15/Mir Expedition 12, 27 July 1992 0 1 February 1993 (188d 21h 39m)

STS-71/Mir Expedition 19, 27 June - 11 September 1995 (75d 11h 20m) - landed aboard Soyuz TM-21

Soyuz TM-26/Mir Expedition 24, 5 August 1997 - 19 February 1998 (197d 17h 33m)

Total flight time 650d 23h 58m

Retired 1999

 

Solovyov holds the EVA record with a total of 79h 50m on sixteen spacewalks

 

Blaine Hammond (1952) USA

Selected 1984 (NASA Group 10)

STS-39, 28 April - 6 May 1991 (8d 7h 22m)

STS-64, 9 - 20 September 1994 (10d 22h 49m)

Total flight time 19d 6h 11m

Retired 1998

 

Jerry Linenger (1955) USA

Selected 1992 (NASA Group 14)

STS-64, 9 - 20 September 1994

STS-81/Mir Resident, 12 January - 24 May 1997 (132d 4h 0m) - landed aboard STS-84

Total flight time 143d 2h 49m

Retired 1998

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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JANUARY 17TH

 

Daniel Brandenstein (1943) USA

Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8)

STS-8, 30 August - 5 September 1983 (6d 1h 8m)

STS-51G, 17 - 24 June 1985 (7d 1h 38m)

STS-32, 9 - 20 January 1990 (10d 21h 0m) - LDEF retrieval mission

STS-49, 7 - 16 May 1992 (8d 21h 17m)

Total flight time 32d 21h 3m

Retired 1992

 

LDEF was the Long Duration Exposure Facility, a satellite the size of a single-decker bus which was placed in orbit in April 1984 to expose samples of various materials to the space environment. It was supposed to be brought back in March 1985, but flight delays and then the Challenger accident meant it remained in orbit for more than five years. It was finally retrieved not long before it would have re-entered of its own accord and burnt up in the atmosphere.

 

Talgat Musabeyev (1951) USSR (Kazakhstan)

Selected 1990

Soyuz TM-19/Mir Expedition 16, 1 July - 4 November 1994 (125d 22h 53m)

Soyuz TM-27/Mir Expedition 25, 29 January - 25 August 1998 (207d 12h 49m)

Soyuz TM-32/ISS Taxi Flight 1, 28 April - 6 May 2001 (7d 22h 4m) - landed aboard Soyuz TM-31

Total flight time 341d 9h 46m

Retired 2003

 

Also served as backup on Soyuz TM-13, TM-18 and TM-25

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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