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Astronaut Birthdays for July


GordonD

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July 1st

 

Kalpana Chawla (1961) USA - Born Karnal, India but US Citizen

She was actually born 17 March 1962 but her official date of birth was altered so she could start college early

Selected 1994 (NASA Group 15)

STS-87, 19 November - 5 December 1997 (15d 16h 34m)

STS-107, 16 January - 1 February 2003 (15d 22h 20m to loss of signal) - Carried US Microgravity Laboratory

Killed when Orbiter Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry

Total flight time 31d 14h 54m

 

 

 

Edward Lu (1963) USA

Selected 1994 (NASA Group 15)

STS-84, 15 - 24 May 1997 (9d 5h 20m) - Sixth docking with Mir; crew exchange (Foale up; Linenger down)

STS-106, 8 - 20 September 2000 (11d 19h 10m) - Delivered equipment and supplies to the ISS in preparation for the arrival of the Expedition 1 crew

Soyuz TMA-2/ISS Expedition 7, 26 April - 28 October 2003 (184d 22h 46m) - First flight following the Columbia accident

Total flight time 205d 23h 16m

Retired August 2007

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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July 2nd

 

Iven Kincheloe (1928) USA

Selected 1958 (Man In Space Soonest Group)

Candidate for MISS but programme cancelled in favour of Mercury Project

Flew the X-15; first man to exceed an altitude of 100,000 feet (7 September 1956)

Killed in F-104 crash, 26 July 1958

 

 


Valery Illarianov (1939) USSR

Selected 1970

Trained for the Buran (Soviet Shuttle); programme cancelled

Retired October 1992; no flights

Died of cancer, 10 March 1999

 

 


Georgi Ivanov (1940) Bulgaria

Selected 1978

Soyuz 33, 10 - 12 April 1979 (1d 23h 1m) - Failed to achieve docking with Salyut 6 so mission curtailed

Retired April 1979

 

Original name was Georgi Ivanov Kakalov but his family name was dropped because 'Kakalov' is a Russian obscenity

 

 


Linda Godwin (1952) USA

Selected 1985 (NASA Group 11)

STS-37, 5 - 11 April 1991 (5d 23h 32m) - Deployed Arthur Holly Compton Gamma Ray Observatory; unplanned EVA required to release the stuck main antenna

STS-59, 9 - 20 April 1994 (11d 5h 49m) - Carried Space Radar Laboratory

STS-76, 22 - 31 March 1996 (9d 5h 16m) - Third Shuttle/Mir docking; Lucid joined resident crew

STS-108, 5 - 17 December 2001 (11d 19h 35m) - Delivered supplies and equipment to ISS; also crew exchange (Expedition 4 up; Expedition 3 down)

Total flight time 38d 6h 12m

Retired August 2010

 

 


Wendy Lawrence (1959) USA

Selected 1992 (NASA Group 14)

STS-67, 2 - 18 March 1995 (16d 15h 8m) - Carried ASTRO-2 laboratory

STS-86, 26 September - 6 October 1997 (9d 19h 54m) - Seventh Shuttle/Mir docking; crew exchange (Wolf up; Foale down)

STS-91, 2 - 12 June 1998 (9d 19h 54m) - Ninth and final Shuttle/Mir docking; Thomas returned to Earth

STS-114, 26 July - 9 August 2005 (13d 21h 32m) - First Shuttle flight following the Columbia accident; delivered equipment and supplies to the ISS

Total flight time 51d 3h 54m

Retired June 2006

 

On STS-86 Lawrence was originally meant to become resident crewmember aboard Mir but was replaced by Wolf as she was too small to use the Russian spacesuit

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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July 3rd

 

Mikhail Rebrov (1931) USSR

Selected 1965

Journalist with Krasnaya Zvezda magazine ("Red Star"); linked with the Soviet lunar landing programme but did not undergo full cosmonaut training

Retired 1974

Died of cancer 24 April 1998

 

 


Jack Schmitt (1935) USA

Selected 1965 (NASA Group 4)

Originally assigned as LMP on Apollo 18 but when that mission was cancelled was switched to Apollo 17 so that a geologist would go to the Moon

Apollo 17, 7 - 19 December 1972 (12d 13h 52m) - Sixth Moon landing; twelfth man to walk on the Moon

Retired 30 August 1975

 

 


Norman Thagard (1943) USA

Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8 )

STS-7, 18 - 24 June 1983 (6d 2h 24m) - Deployed two comsats. First flight with a crew of five; first with an American woman; first deployment and retrieval of a satellite

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

STS-30, 4 - 8 May 1989 (4d 0h 56m) - Deployed the Magellan Venus Radar Mapper (reached the planet in August 1990)

STS-42, 22 - 30 January 19982 (8d 1h 14m) - Carried International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1)

Soyuz TM-21/Mir Expedition 18, 14 March - 7 July 1995 (115d 8h 43m) - Landed aboard STS-71. First American astronaut to fly on Soyuz and to live aboard Mir

Total flight time 140d 13h 25m

Retired January 1996

 

 

 

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July 4th

 

Richard Garriott (1961) USA - Born in Cambridge but US Citizen

Selected 2007

Soyuz TMA-13/ISS Visiting Flight 11, 12 - 24 October 2008 (11d 20h 35m) - Spaceflight Participant (fare-paying tourist); landed aboard Soyuz TMA-12

Retired October 2008

 

Son of Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott

 

 

 

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July 5th

 

Tom Henricks (1952) USA

Selected 1985 (NASA Group 11)

STS-44, 24 November - 1 December 1991 (6d 22h 50m) - DoD mission; deployed a satellite to detect nuclear detonations and missile launches

STS-55, 26 April - 6 May 1993 (9d 23h 40m) - Carried the German-financed Spacelab D-2

STS-70, 13 - 22 July 1995 (8d 22h 20m) - Deployed TDRS-G comsat. Launch delayed due to damage of the External Tank foam insulation by woodpeckers!

STS-78, 20 June - 7 July 1996 (16d 21h 47m) - Carried Life & Microgravity Sciences in Spacelab module

Total flight time 42d 18h 37m

Retired October 1997

 

 


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July 6th

 

Robert White (1924) USA

Selected 1960 (X-15 Group 1)

Made sixteen X-15 flights though none over 100km so not classified as space flights

Retired December 1962

Died 17 March 2010

 

 

 

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16 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

I hadn't realised that Richard Garriott had retired.

Well, as a fare-paying passenger he technically retired from active flight status as soon as he landed. Nothing to stop him paying for a second flight though - Charles Simonyi did it.

 

Thanks for the question though - nice to know that people are actually taking this in!

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July 7th

 

Paul Sefcheck (1946) USA

Selected 1979 (Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 1)

Retired August 1985; no flights

Died of cancer 23 July 1997

 

 


Kevin Ford (1960) USA

Selected 2000 (NASA Group 18)

STS-128, 29 August - 12 September 2009 (13d 20h 53m) - Delivered equipment and supplies to the ISS; crew exchange (Stott up; Kopra down)

Soyuz TMA-06M/ISS Expeditions 33/34, 23 October 2012 - 16 March 2013 (143d 16h 15m)

Total flight time 157d 13h 8m

Retired January 2014

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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July 8th

 

Vitali Sevastyanov (1935) USSR

Selected 1968

Soyuz 9, 1 - 19 June 1970 (17d 16h 58m) - Earth-observation mission, last before introduction of Salyut. First manned night launch

Soyuz 18/Salyut 4 Expedition 2, 24 May - 26 July 1975 (62d 23h 20m) - Mission flown by backup crew after original flight aborted prior to orbit insertion

Total flight time 80d 16h 18m

Retired December 1993

Died 5 April 2010

 

 

 

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July 9th

 

John Casper (1943) USA

Selected 1984 (NASA Group 10)

STS-36, 28 February - 4 March 1990 (4d 10h 18m) - Classified DoD mission; deployed militaty reconnaissance satellite

STS-54, 13 - 19 January 1993 (5d 23h 38m) - Deployed TDRS-F communications satellite

STS-62, 4 - 18 March 1994 (13d 23h 16m) - Carried the second US Microgravity Payload (USMP-2)

STS-77, 19 - 29 May 1996 (10d 0h 39m) - Deployed and retrieved free-flying SPARTAN experiment pallet

Total flight time 34d 9h 51m

Retired 1997

 

 


Irina Latysheva (1953) USSR

Selected 1990

Retired March 1983; no flights

 

 


Sergei Krichevsky (1955) USSR

Selected 1989

Retired June 1998; no flights

 

 


Christopher Loria (1960)

Selected 1996 (NASA Group 16)

In training for STS-113 but sustained a severe back injury which permanently grounded him

Retired 2005; no flights

 

 

 

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July 10th

 

Pyotr Klimuk (1942) USSR

Selected 1965

Soyuz 13, 18 - 26 December 1973 (7d 20h 55m) - Carried Orion 2 astrophysical camera; conducted stellar observations in the ultraviolet range

Soyuz 18/Salyut 4 Expedition 2, 24 May - 26 July 1975 (62d 23h 20m) - Mission flown by backup crew after original flight aborted prior to orbit insertion

Soyuz 30/Salyut 6 Visiting Flight 2, 27 June - 5 July 1978 (7d 22h 2m)

Total flight time 78d 18h 17m

Retired March 1982

 

 


Christopher Holmes (1950) United Kingdom

Selected 1984

Backup for STS-71C; mission cancelled following the Challenger accident

Retired January 1986

 

 


Dmitri Petelin (1983) Russia

Selected 2012

On active status; no flights yet

 

 


Ivan Vagner (1985) Russia

Selected 2010

On active status; no flights yet

 

 

 

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July 11th

 

Lawrence DeLucas (1950) USA

Selected 1990

STS-50, 25 June - 9 July 1992 (13d 19h 30m) - Carried US Microgravity Laboratory (USML-1)

Retired July 1992

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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July 12th

 

Rick Husband (1957) USA

Selected 1994 (NASA Group 15)

STS-96, 27 May - 6 June 1999 (9d 19h 13m) - Delivered supplies and equipment to the ISS for use by a future assembly crew prior to first occupation

STS-107, 16 January - 1 February 2003 (15d 22h 20m to loss of signal) - Carried US Microgravity Laboratory

Killed when Orbiter Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry

Total flight time 25d 17h 33m

 

 

 

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July 13th

 

Aleksei Yeliseyev (1934) USSR

Selected 1968

Soyuz 5, 15 - 17 January 1969 (1d 23h 45m) - First docking of two manned spacecraft (Landed aboard Soyuz 4)

Soyuz 8, 13 - 18 October 1969 (4d 22h 50m) - 'Troika' mission with Soyuz 6 & 7; planned docking with Soyuz 7 cancelled because automatic rendezvous system failed

Soyuz 10, 21 - 23 April 1971 (1d 23h 45m) - Docked with Salyut 1; should have been Expedition 1 but failed to get airtight seal and mission abandoned

Total flight time 8d 22h 20m

Retired December 1985

 

 


Viktor Chirkin (1944) USSR

Selected 1979

Trained for Buran Soviet Shuttle but programme cancelled

Retired 1982 apparently because he did not believe the spacecraft would ever fly

 

 


George Nelson (1950) USA
Selected 1978 (NASA Group 8 )

STS-41C, 6 - 13 April 1984 (6d 23h 40m) - Deployed LDEF; also retrieved, repaired and redeployed the malfunctioning Solar Max satellite 

STS-61C, 12 - 18 January 1986 (6d 2h 3m) - Deployed communications satellite; also carried Materials Science Laboratory. Last flight prior to Challenger accident

STS-26, 29 September - 2 October 1988 (4d 1h 0m) - First flight after the Challenger accident; deployed TDRS-C relay satellite

Total flight time 17d 2h 43m

Retired June 1989

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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July 14th

 

Robert Overmyer (1936) USA

Selected 1966 (MOL Group 2; transferred to NASA 1969)

STS-5, 11 - 16 November 1982 (5d 2h 14m) - First "operational" Shuttle flight; deployed two comsats

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

Total flight time 12d 2h 22m

Retired June 1986

Killed in air crash 22 March 1996

 

 

 

Tatyana Kuznetsova (1941) USSR

Selected 1962

Backup for planned Voskhod 5; programme cancelled in favour of Soyuz

Retired October 1969; no flights

 

 

 

Esther Dyson (1951) USA

Selected 2008 

Backup Spaceflight Participant (fare-paying tourist) on Soyuz TMA-14

Retired April 2009; no flights

 

 

 

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July 15th

 

Benoit Silve (1958) France

Selected 1990 (France Group 3)

Candidate for Soyuz TM-15 'Antares' mission but not selected as prime or backup

Retired 1993; no flights

 

 


Alexander Dunlap (1960) USA 

Selected 1996

Backup for STS-90 Neurolab

Retired May 1998; no flights

 

 


Jessica Meir (1977) USA

Selected 2013 (NASA Group 21)

On active status; no flights yet

 

 

 

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July 17th

 

Janet Kavandi  (1959) USA

Selected 1994 (NASA Group 15)

STS-91, 2 - 12 June 1998 (9d 19h 54m) - Ninth and final Shuttle/Mir docking; Thomas returned to Earth

STS-99, 11 - 22 February 2000 (11d 5h 38m) - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission - took nearly one trillion measurements of Earth's topography for improved mapping

STS-104, 12 - 25 July 2001 (12d 18h 35m) - Delivered the Quest Joint Airlock to the ISS (required as US space-suits don't fit through the Russian airlock)

Total flight time 33d 20h 7m

Retired 2005

 

 

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Apologies for the delay here - I did write it yesterday but apparently forgot to post it!

 

July 18th

 

John Glenn (1921) USA

Selected 1959 (NASA Group 1)

Mercury-Atlas 6/Friendship 7, 20 February 1962 (4h 55m) - First US orbital flight

Retired January 1964

Selected 1998 for Shuttle mission

STS-95, 29 October - 7 November 1998 (8d 21h 44m) - Carried a variety of scientific payloads. Glenn became the oldest man in space (77 years 103 days at launch)

Total flight time 9d 2h 39m

Retired November 1998

Died 8 December 2016

 

 

 

Josh Cassada (1973) USA

Selected 2013 (NASA Group 21)

On active status; no flights yet

 

 

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July 20th

 

Vladimir Lyakhov (1941) USSR

Selected 1967

Soyuz 32/Salyut 6 Expedition 3, 25 February - 19 August 1979 (175d 0h 35m) - Landed aboard Soyuz 34

Soyuz T-9/Salyut 7 Expedition 2 , 27 June - 23 November 1983 (149d 10h 46m)

Soyuz TM-6/Mir Visiting Flight 3, 29 August - 7 September 1988 (8d 20h 26m) - Landed aboard Soyuz TM-5

Total flight time 333d 7h 47m

Retired September 1994

Died 19 April 2018

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

 

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July 21st

 

Otto Hoernig (1938) USA

Selected 1984

Would possibly have flown on an AmSat deployment flight but mission cancelled after the Challenger accident

Retired 1986; no flights

 

 


Nigel Wood (1949) United Kingdom

Selected 1984

Assigned to STS-61H; mission cancelled following the Challenger accident. Would likely have been the first UK citizen in space

Retired 1986; no flights

 

 


Frank Casserino (1955) USA

Selected 1979 (Manned Spaceflight Engineer Group 1)

Assigned to STS-41H; mission cancelled following the Challenger accident

Retired April 1986; no flights

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts and US Air Force websites

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July 22nd

 

Yuri Artyukhin (1930) USSR

Selected 1963

Soyuz 14/Salyut 3 Expedition 1, 3 - 19 July 1974 (15d 17h 30m) - Conducted military observation, some science experiments.

Retired 1982

Died of cancer 4 August 1998

 

Some sources give date of birth as 22 June

 

 


Toyohiro Akiyama (1942) Japan

Selected 1989

Soyuz TM-11/Mir Visiting Flight 4, 2 - 10 December 1990 (7d 21h 54m) - Landed aboard Soyuz TM-10.

Retired December 1990

 

Journalist who made several TV and radio broadcasts from orbit. His employer, Tokyo Broadcasting System, paid for his seat so he is technically the first commercial passenger

 

 


Kenneth Bechis (1949) USA

Selected 1987

Assigned to STS-50 StarLab but mission cancelled (designation later used for USML-1)

Retired September 1990; no flights

 

 

 

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July 23rd

 

Elliot See (1927) USA

Selected 1962 (NASA Group 2)

Assigned to Gemini IX but killed 28 February 1966 in T-38 crash at the McDonnell plant in St Louis while flying to inspect the spacecraft

 

Because of the deaths of See and his colleague Charlie Bassett, Gemini IX was flown by its backup crew, Stafford and Cernan. Had things gone according to plan, then they would have skipped the next two missions and flown Gemini XII, as per NASA's crew selection policy of the time. As things turned out, they were replaced in the reserve slots by the Gemini X backups, Lovell and Aldrin, who under the same policy would have been left with no mission as there was no Gemini XIII. However as  the new backups on Nine, they ultimately flew Gemini XII, and this mission gave Aldrin the flight experience he needed to be eligible for Apollo 11. The demanding first lunar landing (like Apollo 10 before it) had no 'rookie' astronauts, so had Elliot See lived then Aldrin would not yet have flown and the historic team of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins would not have existed.

 

 

 

Information from Spacefacts website

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