Facts about Astronaut
Astronauts may train for extra-vehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.
On October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut, on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.
NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond.
Astronauts are also required to accrue a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft.
The farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (during the Apollo 13 emergency).
The first mission to orbit the moon was Apollo 8, which included William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968.
On March 14, 1995, astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, arguably becoming the first "American cosmonaut" in the process.
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.
The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his short story "The Death's Head Meteor" in 1930.
U.S. astronauts who also have active-duty military status receive a special qualification badge, known as the Astronaut Badge, upon participation on a spaceflight.
NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps.
The first astronauts, both in the U.S. and USSR, tended to be jet fighter pilots, often test pilots, with military backgrounds.
Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for "astronaut" have entered occasional English usage.
The United States Air Force also presents an Astronaut Badge to its pilots who exceed 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.
In Chinese, the term y?hбngyuбn (???) has long been used for astronauts.
Official English texts issued by the Chinese government use astronaut while texts in Russian use cosmonaut.
Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930 in Ohio. He studied aerospace engineering at Purdue University and became a naval aviator a couple years before the Korean War. He was accepted to the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962 and flew for his first time as a command pilot on Project Gemini.Sep 11, 2012