GordonD Posted February 1, 2018 Share Posted February 1, 2018 February 1st - 15th Anniversary of the Columbia Accident Vladimir Aksyonov (1935) USSR Selected 1973 Soyuz 22, 15 - 23 September 1976 (7d 21h 52m) - Solo mission not intended to fly to Salyut. Used the backup ASTP spacecraft with a multispectral camera replacing the docking mechanism Soyuz T-2, 5 - 9 June 1980 (3d 22h 19m) - First manned flight of the third generation Soyuz. Docked with Salyut 6 Total flight time 11d 20h 11m Retired 1988 Franco Rossitto (1940) Italy Selected 1984 Reached shortlist of 12 for Spacelab 1 but not selected Retired 1986; no flights Died 6 May 2015 Daniel Tani (1961) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-108, 5 - 17 December 2001 (11d 19h 35m) - ISS crew rotation of Expeditions 3 and 4 STS-120/ISS Expedition 16 (119d 22h 29m) - landed aboard STS-122 Total flight time 131d 18h 4m Retired 2012 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 February 2nd Christina Koch (1979) USA Selected 2013 (NASA Group 21) On active status; no flights yet Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 3, 2018 Author Share Posted February 3, 2018 February 3rd Vladimir Fartushny (1938) USSR Selected 1968 Was named for Soyuz 6 but replaced after a car accident Retired 1971; no flights Vladimir Preobrazhensky (1939) USSR Selected 1965 Second Backup on Soyuz 24 Retired 1980; no flights Died 25 October 1993 Joe Edwards (1958) USA Selected 1994 (NASA Group 15) STS-89, 23 - 31 January 1998 (8d 19h 47m) - Eighth Mir docking; crew exchange Thomas (up) for Wolf (down) Retired 2000 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 4, 2018 Author Share Posted February 4, 2018 February 4th No astronaut birthdays today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 February 5th Mary Cleave (1947) USA Selected 1980 (NASA Group 9) STS-61B, 27 November - 3 December 1985 (6d 21h 4m) - deployed three communication satellites, also practised assembly of structures in orbit STS-30, 4 - 8 May 1989 (4d 0h 56m) - deployed the Magellan Venus Radar Mapper which studied the planet for one Venus day (243 Earth days) starting August 1990 Total flight time 10d 22h 0m Retired May 1991 Andrew Morgan (1976) USA Selected 2013 (NASA Group 21) On active status; no flights yet Jonathan Kim (1984) USA Selected 2017 (NASA Group 22) On active status; no flights yet Information from Spacefacts website 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 Blimey, for a second there I thought you had listed Jonathan King as an astronaut. Maybe he was serious when he sang "Everyone's Gone to the Moon". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 6, 2018 Author Share Posted February 6, 2018 February 6th Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig (1949) Mongolia Selected 1978 Backup for Soyuz 39 in 1981 Retired 1981; no flights Yuri Onufrienko (1961) USSR Selected 1989 Soyuz TM-23/Mir Expedition 21, 21 February - 2 September 1996 (139d 19h 7m) STS-108/ISS Expedition 4, 5 December 2001 - 19 June 2002 (195d 19h 38m) - landed aboard STS-111 Total flight time 389d 14h 45m Retired 2004 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 7, 2018 Author Share Posted February 7, 2018 February 7th Konstantin Feoktistov (1926) USSR Selected 1964 Voskhod 1, 12 - 13 October 1964 (1d 0h 17m) - First multi-manned flight Retired 1987 Died 21 November 2009 Al Worden (1932) USA Selected 1966 (NASA Group 5) Apollo 15, 26 July - 7 August 1971 (12d 7h 12m) - CMP so didn't land on the Moon Retired 1975 Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (1963) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-115, 9 - 21 September 2006 (11d 19h 26m) - delivered truss segment and solar arrays to the ISS STS-126, 15 - 30 November 2008 (15d 20h 29m) - ISS crew exchange (Magnus up, Chamitoff down) Total flight time 27d 15h 35m Retired 2009 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 February 8th José Armando López-Falcón (1950) Cuba Selected 1978 Backup for Soyuz 38 Retired 1980; no flights Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 February 9th Bill Williams (1942) USA Selected 1983 Selected as Payload Specialist on STS-61D but resigned to spend more time with his family Retired 1985; no flights Ulrich Walter (1954) (Germany) Selected 1987 STS-55, 26 April - 6 May 1993 (9d 23h 40m) - Spacelab D-2, the second German Spacelab Retired 1993 Peggy Whitson (1960) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-111/ISS Expedition 5, 5 June - 7 December 2002 (184d 22h 14m) Soyuz TMA-11/ISS Expedition 16, 10 October 2007 - 19 April 2008 (191d 19h 7m) Soyuz MS-03/ISS Expeditions 50/51/52, 17 November 2016 - 3 September 2017 (289d 5h 1m) - landed aboard Soyuz MS-04 Total flight time to date 665d 22h 22m Still on active flight status Holds the following records: US cumulative flight duration Female cumulative flight duration Female single flight duration Female cumulative EVA duration First female Commander of the ISS (on Expedition 16) Also Commander on Expedition 51 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 February 10th Garrett Reisman (1968) USA Selected 1998 (NASA Group 17) STS-123/ISS Expeditions 16/17, 11 March - 14 June 2008 (95d 8h 47m) - landed aboard STS-124 STS-132, 14 - 26 May 2010 (11d 18h 28m) - delivered the Russian Mini-Research Module to the ISS Total flight time 107d 3h 15m Retired 2011 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 February 11th Stephen Thorne (1953) USA Selected June 1985 (NASA Group 11) Killed in crash of Pitts 2A stunt plane, 24 May 1986 Richard Mastracchio (1960) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-106, 8 - 20 September 2000 (11d 19h 10m) - delivered supplies (and a toilet!) to the ISS in preparation for the arrival first occupants STS-118, 8 - 21 August 2007 (12d 17h 55m) - delivered S5 truss segment and other components to the ISS STS-131, 5 - 20 April 2010 (15d 2h 47m) - ISS supply mission; also carried (and returned) the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Soyuz TMA-11M/ISS Expeditions 38/39, 7 November 2013 - 14 May 2014 (187d 21h 44m) Total flight time 227d 13h 36m Retired July 2015 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 February 12th Ivan Anikeyev (1933) USSR Selected 1960 Dismissed April 1963 for disciplinary reasons after he and two other cosmonauts were arrested for being drunk and disorderly at a railway station. (See also Valentin Filatyev under January 21st) Died 20 August 1992 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 February 13th Sigmund Jähn (1937) East Germany Selected 1976 Soyuz 31/Salyut 6 Taxi Flight, 26 August - 3 September 1978 (7d 20h 49m) - landed aboard Soyuz 29 Retired 1978 Valeri Rozhdestvensky (1939) USSR Selected 1965 Soyuz 23, 14 - 16 October 1976 (2d 0h 6m) - planned docking with Salyut 5 abandoned when rendezvous failed Retired 1986 Died 31 August 2011 After the docking was abandoned the crew were forced to return to Earth as this version of the Soyuz had no solar panels and power was low. The capsule landed in a frozen lake, in a snowstorm, at night, and sank. The cosmonauts had turned off everything to conserve power and were unable to contact the recovery team. The capsule was too heavy for the helicopter to lift so was dragged to shore, an operation which took nine hours - all the time the recovery team assumed the cosmonauts were dead and had summoned a special team to remove the bodies Donald Williams (1942) USA Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8) STS-51D, 12 - 19 April 1985 (6d 23h 55m) - deployed ANIK-C1 and SYNCOM IV-3 satellites though SYNCOM's sequencer failed and satellite did not reach planned orbit STS-34, 18 - 23 October 1989 (4d 23h 39m) - deployed the Galileo Venus Radar Mapper Total flight time 11d 23h 34m Died 23 February 2016 Stephen Bowen (1964) USA Selected 2000 (NASA Group 18) STS-126, 15 - 30 November 2008 (15d 20h 29m) - ISS crew exchange (Magnus up, Chamitoff down) STS-132, 14 - 26 May 2010 (11d 18h 28m) - delivered the Russian Mini-Research Module to the ISS STS-133, 24 February - 9 March 2011 (12d 19h 4m) - delivered the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the ISS; final flight of Discovery Total flight time to date 40d 10h 1m Still on active flight status Bowen was not on the original crew manifest for STS-133 but Tim Kopra was injured in a bicycle accident six weeks before launch so was replaced by Bowen, enabling him to fly consecutive Shuttle missions Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 14, 2018 Author Share Posted February 14, 2018 February 14th Pham Tuân (1947) Vietnam Selected 1979 (Interkosmos Group 3) Soyuz 37, 23 - 31 July 1980 (7d 20h 42m) - Salyut 6 Taxi Flight (landed aboard Soyuz 36) Retired 1980 William Thompson (1956) USA Selected 1982 (USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 2) Might have flown on the Shuttle but resigned 1987 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 15, 2018 Author Share Posted February 15, 2018 February 15th Tommie Benefield (1929) USA Selected 1963 as a military astronaut Date of retiral not known Killed in crash of B-1 bomber prototype at Edwards AFB, 29 August 1984 Roger Chaffee (1935) USA Selected 1963 (NASA Group 3) Was in training for Apollo 1; killed in pad fire 27 January 1967 Aleksander Serebrov (1944) USSR Selected 1978 Soyuz T-7, 19 - 27 August 1982 (7d 21h 52m) - Salyut 7 Taxi Flight (landed aboard Soyuz T-5); also carried first female into orbit for 20 years Soyuz T-8, 20 - 22 April 1983 (2d 0h 17m) - docking with Salyut 7 failed when radar antenna boom did not deploy (was torn off when payload shroud jettisoned) Soyuz TM-8/Mir Expedition 5, 5 September 1989 - 19 February 1990 (166d 6h 58m) Soyuz TM-17/Mir Expedition 14, 1 July 1993 - 14 January 1994 (196d 17h 45m) Total flight time 372d 22h 52m Retired 1995 Died 12 November 2013 Nikolai Grekov (1950) USSR Selected 1978 Removed from flight status 1986 for medical reasons; no flights Lee Melvin (1964) USA Selected 1998 (NASA Group 17) STS-122, 7 - 20 February 2008 (12d 18h 21m) - delivered ESA Columbus science lab to ISS, and crew exchange (Eyharts up, Tani down) STS-129, 16 - 27 November 2009 (10d 19h 16m) - ISS supply flight, also brought down Stott, last ISS resident to return on the Shuttle Total flight time 23d 13h 27m Retired October 2010 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 16, 2018 Author Share Posted February 16, 2018 February 16th Valentin Bondarenko (1937) USSR Selected 1960 Died 23 March 1961 Bondarenko was taking part in a 15-day low-pressure test in a sealed chamber with over 50% oxygen content. On Day Ten he removed some medical sensors from his body and cleaned up the sticky residue with alcohol-soaked cotton wool. However when he threw away the cotton ball it landed on an electrical hotplate and caught fire. Bondarenko tried to beat out the flames but his clothing also caught fire and due to the pressure differential the rescue team could not get to him for thirty minutes, by which time he had suffered third-degree burns over most of his body. He died of shock some sixteen hours later. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star and a crater on the lunar Farside is named for him. Details of the accident were hushed up and did not reach the West until 1980. It has been suggested that had NASA been aware of this, they may have changed their own training approach and the Apollo 1 fire might have been avoided. Michael Mantz (1953) USA Selected 1982 (USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 2) Retired 1987; no flights Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 February 17th No astronaut birthdays today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 February 18th Theodore Freeman (1930) USA Selected 1963 (NASA Group 3) Would probably have flown in Gemini but killed 31st October 1964 when his T-38 crashed following a birdstrike near Ellington AFB, Texas First US astronaut to die. His wife learned of his death when a reporter came to her house to interview her, leading NASA to revise its procedures in such cases. Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 February 19th Joe Kerwin (1932) USA Selected 1965 (NASA Group 4) Skylab 2 (first manned expedition), 25 May - 22 June 1973 (28d 0h 50m) Retired 1987 Kenneth Nordsieck (1946) USA Selected 1984; trained for ASTRO-1 mission but not selected Retired 1990 Byron Lichtenberg (1948) USA Selected 1978 STS-9, 28 November - 8 December 1983 (10d 7h 47m) - Spacelab 1 STS-45, 24 March - 2 April 1992 (8d 22h 9m) - ATLAS 1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications & Science) Retired 1992 Rodolfo Neri (1952) Mexico Selected 1985 STS-61B, 27 November - 3 December 1985 (6d 21h 4m) - Deployed three Comsats plus evaluation of assembling structures in space Retired 1985 G. David Low (1956) USA Selected 1984 (NASA Group 10) STS-32, 9 - 20 January 1990 (10d 21h 0m) - LDEF retrieval mission STS-43, 2 - 11 August 1991 (8d 21h 21m) - Deployed TDRS-5 (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) providing continuous communications with spacecraft in flight STS-57, 21 June - 1 July 1993 (9d 23h 44m) - First flight of the privately-developed SPACEHAB module Total flight time 29d 18h 5m Retired 1996 Died 15 March 2008 The first Cygnus cargo craft, used to resupply the ISS, was named in his honour Sergei Prokopyev (1975) Russia Selected 2010 Still on active status; no flights yet but was backup on Soyuz TMA-18M and MS-07 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 February 20th Joe Walker (1921) USA Selected 1960 (X-15 group) Made 24 X-15 flights including the only two to exceed an altitude of 100km (thereby qualifying as sub-orbital spaceflights under FAA rules) Flight #90, 19 July 1963 (11m) Flight #91, 22 August 1963 (11m) - First man to go into space twice Total flight time 22m Killed 8 June 1966 when his F-104 collided with the XB-70 Valkyrie Aleksandr Aleksandrov (1943) USSR Selected 1978 Soyuz T-9/Salyut 7 Expedition 2, 27 June - 23 November 1983 (149d 10h 46m) Soyuz TM-3/Mir Expedition 2, 22 July - 30 December 1987 (160d 7h 16m) Total flight time 309d 18h 2m Retired October 1993 Vasili Tsibilyev (1954) USSR (Ukraine) Selected 1987 Soyuz TM-17/Mir Expedition 14, 1 July 1993 - 14 January 1994 (196d 17h 45m) Soyuz TM-25/Mir Expedition 23, 10 February - 14 August 1997 (184d 22h 7m) Total flight time 381d 15h 52m Retired June 1998 Michal Fulier (1955) Slovakia Selected 1998 Backup for Soyuz TM-29 Retired 1999; no flights Anton Shkaplerov (1972) Russia Selected 2003 Soyuz TMA-22/ISS Expeditions 29/30, 14 November 2011 - 27 April 2012 (165d 7h 31m) Soyuz TMA-15M/ISS Expeditions 42/43, 23 November 2014 - 11 June 2015 (199d 16h 42m) Soyuz MS-07/ISS Expedition 54, launched 17 December 2017; currently on-orbit (~ 65d to date) Total flight time to date ~ 430d Currently scheduled to return to Earth in June Maksim Ponomaryov (1980) Russia Selected 2006 Retired September 2012; no flights Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 February 21st Vladimir Mosolov (1944) USSR Selected 1979; trained for Buran missions Retired 1987; no flights Mark Kelly (1964) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-108, 5 - 17 December 2001 (11d 19h 35m) - ISS Crew rotation (Expeditions 3 & 4) STS-121, 4 - 17 July 2006 (12d 18h 36m) - Astrolab, also delivered Reiter to the ISS STS-124, 31 May - 14 June 2008 (13d 18h 13m) - Delivered Japanese Kibo module to ISS; also ISS crew exchange (Chamitoff up, Reisman down) STS-134, 16 May - 1 June 2011 (15d 17h 38m) - Delivered Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS (final flight of Endeavour) Total flight time 54d 2h 2m Retired 1 October 2011 Kelly is married to the former US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head on 8 January 2011; during her recuperation his place on the STS-134 mission was in doubt but ultimately she recovered sufficiently for him to fly Scott Kelly (1964) USA Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16) STS-103, 20 - 28 December 1999 (7d 23h 10m) - Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission STS-118, 8 - 21 August 2007 (12d 17h 55m) - Delivered S5 truss segment to the ISS Soyuz TMA-10M/ISS Expeditions 25/26, 7 October 2010 - 16 March 2011 (159d 8h 43m) Soyuz TMA-16M/ISS Expeditions 43/44/45/46, 27 March 2015 - 2 March 2016 (340d 8h 42m) - landed aboard Soyuz TMA-18M Total flight time 520d 10h 30m Retired April 2016 Holds the US single-flight duration record Mark and Scott Kelly are identical twins Information from Spacefacts website 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 February 22nd James Bagian (1952) USA Selected 1980 (NASA Group 9) STS-29, 13 - 18 March 1989 (4d 23h 39m) - Deployed the TDRS-4 communications satellite STS-40, 4 - 14 June 1991 (9d 2h 14m) - Spacelab Life Sciences 1 Total flight time 14d 1h 53m Retired 1995 Information from Spacefacts website (Thanks for yesterday's 'like' - I wasn't sure if people were still reading!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdsvidioman Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Oh yes we are, daily, very many thanks. Paul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted February 23, 2018 Author Share Posted February 23, 2018 February 23rd Vasily Lazarev (1928) USSR Selected 1964 Soyuz 12, 27 - 29 September 1973 (1d 23h 15m) - Test flight of modified version of the Soyuz craft following the Soyuz 11 accident Soyuz 18-1, 5 April 1975 (21m) - In-flight abort after second stage failed to separate; crew subjected to deceleration forces up to 21G; capsule landed on a steep slope and began rolling towards a 500ft sheer drop before the parachutes became entangled in vegetation. The cosmonauts had to wait until the following day to be airlifted out. Lazarev's injuries took him off flight status but he remained on the cosmonaut team until retiring in 1985 Died of alcohol poisoning 31 December 1990 Marc Garneau (1949) Canada Selected 1983 (Canadian Group 1) STS-41G, 5 - 13 October 1984 (8d 5h 23m) - Deployed Earth Radiation Budget Satellite STS-77, 19 - 29 May 1996 (10d 0h 39m) Carried the privately-developed SPACEHAB module, also SPARTAN 207 experiment pallet and tested an inflatable antenna STS-97, 1 - 11 December 2000 (10d 19h 57m) - Delivered the first set of solar arrays to the ISS Total flight time 29d 1h 59m Retired January 2001 Jerry Rij (1950) USA Selected 1979 (USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 1) Retired 1985; no flights Sergei Moshchenko (1954) Russia Selected 1996 Retired 2009; no flights Clayton Anderson (1959) USA Selected 1998 (NASA Group 17) STS-117/ISS Expeditions 15/16, 8 June - 7 November 2007 (151d 18h 23m) - landed aboard STS-120 STS-131, 5 - 20 April 2010, (15d 2h 47m) - Delivered Multi-Purpose Logistics Module 'Leonardo' to the ISS Total flight time 166d 21h 10m Retired 2011 Information from Spacefacts website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now