KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PIONEER ASTRONAUTS / NOTES

 

KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PIONEER ASTRONAUTS / NOTES

KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PIONEER ASTRONAUTS / NOTES

·       First Man Into Space – Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968)

On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok I)

·       First American in Space – Alan Shepard (1923-1998)

Shepard holds the distinction of being the first American to journey into space.

Ø At age 47, Shepard made his second space flight as commander of Apollo 14, January 31-February 9,1971, man’s third successful lunar landing mission

Ø Shepard is also remembered for being the only person to play golf on the Moon

·       First American in Orbit-John Glenn

He piloted the first American manned orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. Glenn lifted off for a second space flight on October 29, 1998, on Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 in order to study the effects of space flight on the elderly. At age 77, Glenn became the oldest person ever to go into space

·       First Man on the Moon-Neil Armstrong

Flew as commander of the Apollo II Mission, and became the first man to walk on the moon on July 21,1969

·       Second Man on the Moon – Buzz Aldrin

Flew as the lunar module pilot for Apollo II and accompanied Neil Armstrong to the surface of the moon. Became the second man to walk on the moon.

·       First woman in space

Valentina Tereshkova is a Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She went to space in Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963

·       First American woman in space

Sally Kristen Ride is the first American woman to enter space (1983)

·       First man to walk in space

Alexey Leonov on 18 March 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk. He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds on 18^th March 1965

·       First couple in space

The first married couple to fly in space together were N Jan Davis and Mark C Lee who both served as mission specialists aboard Endeavour in September 1992. Lee and Davis had met during training for the flight and had married in secret. They disclosed their marriage to NASA shortly before the flight, when it was too late to train a substitute. NASA has since changed the rules and will not allow married astronauts on the same flight.

·       First Indian in Space: Rakesh Sharma

He is a former Indian Air Force test pilot, and Cosmonaut who flew in space abroad Soyuz T-II as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organization and the Soviet intercosmos space program. He spent eight days in space abroad the Salyut 7 space station. He was launched along with two Soviet cosmonauts abroad Soyuz T-II on the 3^rd April 1984. Sharma was the first Indian to travel in space.

·       First Indian / Asian woman in Space

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut with NASA. She was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space. On January 16,2003, Chawla went to space for the second time abroad Columbia. Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

·       First Longest spaceflight

Sunita Williams, a NASA astronaut of Indian origin, has spent a cumulative 608 days in space over the course of her missions. She held the record for the most spaceflight time by  a woman. Her most recent mission abroad a SpaceX capsule concluded in March 2025, marking her return to Earth. She is one of the most experienced astronauts in NASA’s history and has conducted seven spacewalks totaling 50 hours and 40 minutes.

·       First woman commander of a space shuttle

Eileen Collins: was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. Collins was also the first female commander of a US Spacecraft with Shuttle mission, launched in July 1999, which deployed the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Collins become the first astronaut to fly the space shuttle through a complete 360 degree pitch maneuver.

·       First man sent into space by China

Yang Liwei: He was the first man sent into space by the Chinese space program and his mission, Shenzhou 5, made China the third country to independently send people into space.

 

KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PIONEER ASTRONAUTS / NOTES