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astronaut

  (ăs'trə-nôt') pronunciation
n.

A person trained to pilot, navigate, or otherwise participate as a crew member of a spacecraft.

[ASTRO– + Greek nautēs, sailor (from naus, ship).]


 
 
Modern Science: astronaut
astronaut

A crew member of a space mission launched by the United States. (See Apollo program and Mercury program.)

 

[ܒæstrǝܖnôt]

ˈæstrǝܖnôt n. a person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 

Person trained to pilot a spacecraft, operate any of its systems, or conduct research aboard it during spaceflights. The term commonly refers to those participating in U.S. space missions; cosmonaut is the Russian equivalent, and taikonaut is the Chinese equivalent. Astronauts undergo an intense training program that includes classes on spacecraft systems, guidance and navigation, and orbital dynamics, as well as training in land and sea survival, space suits, and weightlessness. With longer stays in space on board the International Space Station, training emphasizes general spaceflight and problem-solving skills, rather than the specific tasks to be accomplished, as in preparation for shorter missions. See also Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.; Neil Armstrong; Guion S. Bluford, Jr.; Yury Gagarin; John H. Glenn, Jr.; Mae Jemison; Sergey Konstantinovich Krikalyov; Shannon Wells Lucid; Valery Vladimirovich Polyakov; Sally Ride; Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; Valentina Tereshkova.

For more information on astronaut, visit Britannica.com.

 
crew member on a U.S. manned spaceflight mission; the Soviet term is cosmonaut. Candidates for manned spaceflight are carefully screened to meet the highest physical and mental standards, and they undergo rigorous training. The early astronauts had all previously been test pilots, but later astronauts have included scientists and physicians, journalists, and politicians. As far as is possible, all conditions to be encountered in space are simulated in ground training. Astronauts are trained to function effectively in cramped quarters while wearing restrictive spacesuits; they are accelerated in giant centrifuges to test their reactions to the inertial forces experienced during liftoff; they are prepared for the physiological disorientation they will experience in space arising from weightlessness; and they spend long periods in isolation chambers to test their psychological reactions to solitude. Using trainers and mock-ups of actual spacecraft, astronauts rehearse every maneuver from liftoff to recovery, and every conceivable malfunction and difficulty is anticipated and prepared for. In addition to flight training, astronauts are required to have thorough knowledge of all aspects of space science, such as celestial mechanics and rocketry. Concurrent with all other preparation, astronauts must maintain excellent physical condition. Manned spaceflight began on Apr. 8, 1961, when the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth. Other prominent cosmonauts included Vladimir Komarov, commander of the first Voskhod spacecraft, Alexis Leonov, first man to walk in space, and Valentina Terechkova, first woman cosmonaut. Prominent American astronauts include Alan B. Shepard, Jr., who made a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961; John H. Glenn, Jr., who was the first American to orbit the earth; Neil A. Armstrong, Jr., Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft that first landed on the Moon in 1969; and Sally K. Ride, America's first female astronaut.

Bibliography

See T. Wolfe, The Right Stuff (1975); G. L. Burdett and G. A. Soffen, The Human Quest in Space (1987); M. Collins, Carrying Fire (1989).


 
Cosmic Lexicon: Astronaut

Person engaged in or trained for spaceflight.

 
Word Tutor: astronaut
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A person trained to fly in outer space.

pronunciation John Glenn is a famous American astronaut.

 
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Wikipedia: astronaut
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a manned maneuvering unit outside the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984
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Astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a manned maneuvering unit outside the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984

An astronaut or cosmonaut (Russian: космона́вт IPA: [kəsmʌˈnaft]) is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.[1] While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.[2][3]

Definition

Until 2003, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military, or by civilian space agencies. However, with the first sub-orbital flight of the privately-funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut. With the rise of space tourism, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term "spaceflight participant" to distinguish those space travelers from astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies.

The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) defines spaceflight as any flight over  kilometers ( mi). However, in the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of  kilometers ( mi) are awarded astronaut wings.

As of October 4, 2007, a total of 463 humans from 34 countries—415 men and 48 women—have reached Low Earth orbit or beyond.[4][5] Of these, 26 people have traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, to either lunar or trans-lunar orbit or to the surface of the moon.[6] According to the FAI guideline, 466 people qualify under the U. S. definition as having reached orbit.[7] Space travelers have spent over 30,400 person-days (or a cumulative total of over 83 years) in space, including over 100 person-days of spacewalks.[7][8] As of 2007, the man with the longest time in space is Sergei K. Krikalev, who has spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes, or 2.2 years, in space.[9][10] Sunita L. Williams holds the record for most time in space by a woman, with 195 days spent in space.[11][12]

Terminology

Countries whose citizens have flown in space as of 2006
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Countries whose citizens have flown in space as of 2006

In the United States and many other English-speaking nations, a professional space traveler is called an astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words ástron (star) and nautes (sailor). 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. The word itself had been known earlier. For example, in Percy Greg's 1880 book Across the Zodiac, "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de l'Infini (1925) of J.-H. Rosny aîné the word astronautique (astronautic) was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied (in 1784) to balloonists.

NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps.[13]

Russia

Main article: Soviet space program
Yuri Gagarin, first person in space (1961) (USSR)
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Yuri Gagarin, first person in space (1961) (USSR)

By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (or its Soviet predecessor) is called a cosmonaut in English texts.[13] The word is an anglicisation of the Russian word космонавт (transliteration: kosmonavt, IPA [kəsmʌˈnaft]), which in turn derives from the Greek words kosmos (universe) and nautes (sailor). For the most part, "cosmonaut" and "astronaut" are synonyms in all languages, and the usage of choice is often dictated by political reasons.

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.

China

In China, the term "yǔhángyuán" (宇航员) or "hángtiānyuán" (航天员) has long been used for astronauts. The phrase "tàikōng rén" (太空人, literally "space person") is often used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The term taikonaut is often used by Western news media for professional space travelers from China. The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih (赵里昱) from Malaysia, used it in newsgroups, while Chen Lan, almost simultaneously, used it in Western media.[citation needed] Official English texts issued by the Chinese government use astronaut while texts in Russian use cosmonaut.[14][14]

Other terms

While no nation other than Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), the United States, and China has launched a manned spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (French spelling: spationaute) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word spatium or "space".

The term "Angkasawan" is used in Malaysia to describe participants of the Angkasawan program. It is translated as astronaut or cosmonaut.

Space travel milestones

See also: Spaceflight records and Timeline of space travel by nationality
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space (1963) (USSR)
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Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space (1963) (USSR)
Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7
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Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7

The first human in space was Russian Yuri Gagarin, who was launched into space on April 12 1961 aboard Vostok 1. The first woman was Russian Valentina Tereshkova, launched into space in June 1963 aboard Vostok 6.

Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on May 5, 1961, while the first American woman in space was Sally Ride, during Space Shuttle Challenger's mission STS-7, on June 18, 1983.[15]

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 15 October 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.

The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from other socialist countries to fly on its missions. An example is Vladimir Remek, a Czech, who became the first non-Soviet European in space in 1978 on a Russian Soyuz rocket.[16] On July 23 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became the first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37.[17] Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of African descent to fly in space (the first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry).[18][19]

With the larger number of seats available on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. began taking international astronauts. In April 1985, Taylor Wang became the first Chinese-born person in space; later that year, Rodolfo Neri Vela became the first Mexican-born person in space.[20][21][22] In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space.[23] In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space, as a paying spaceflight participant.[24]

Age milestones

The youngest person to fly in space is Russian Gherman Titov, who was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2. (Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness).[25][26] The oldest person who has flown in space is John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on STS-95.[27] The longest stay in space was 438 days, by Russian Valeri Polyakov.[7] As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz. The furthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km, during the Apollo 13 emergency.[7]

Non-government milestones

The first non-governmental space traveler was Byron K. Lichtenberg, a researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who flew on STS-9 in 1983.[28] In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler as a reporter for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a visit to Mir as part of an estimated $12 million (USD) deal with a Japanese TV station, although at the time, the term used to refer to Akiyama was "Research Cosmonaut".[29][30][31] Akiyama suffered severe space-sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity.[30]

The first self-funded space tourist was Dennis Tito onboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on 28 April 2001.

Self-funded travelers

The first person to fly on an entirely privately-funded mission was Mike Melvill, piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a sub-orbital journey, although he was a test pilot and not an actual paying space tourist.[32][33]. Since then, five others have paid to fly into space:

  1. Dennis Tito (American): April 28 - May 6, 2001
  2. Mark Shuttleworth (South African / British): April 25 - May 5, 2002 (ISS)
  3. Gregory Olsen (American): October 1 - October 11, 2005 (ISS)
  4. Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): September 18 - September 29, 2006 (ISS)
  5. Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): April 7 - April 21,2007 (ISS)

Training

The first NASA astronauts were selected in 1959.[34] Early in the space program, jet aircraft and engineering training were prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, and candidates tended to have military backgrounds.[35] The earliest astronauts for both America and Russia tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots.

Once selected, NASA astronauts go through 20 months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extra-vehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.[2][35] Astronauts-in-training may also experience short periods of weightlessness in aircraft called the "vomit comet", the nickname given to a pair of modified KC-135s (retired in 2000 and 2004 respectively, and replaced in 2005 with a C-9) which perform parabolic flights.[34] Astronauts are also required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft. This is mostly done in T-38 jet aircraft out of Ellington Field, due to its proximity to the Johnson Space Center. Ellington Field is also where the Shuttle Training Aircraft is maintained and developed, although most flights of the aircraft are done out of Edwards Air Force Base.

NASA candidacy requirements

  • Be citizens of the United States.[36][34]
  • Pass a strict physical examination, and have a distant visual acuity no greater than 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Blood pressure, while sitting, must be no greater than 140 over 90.

Commander and Pilot

Mission Specialist

  • Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics, as well as at least three years of related professional experience.
  • Applicant's height must be  inches ( ft) to  inches ( ft).

Mission Specialist Educator

Mission Specialist Educators Lindenberger, Arnold, and Acaba during a parabolic flight.
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Mission Specialist Educators Lindenberger, Arnold, and Acaba during a parabolic flight.
  • Bachelor's degree with teaching experience, including work at the kindergarten through 12th grade level. Advanced degree not required, but is desired.[37]

Mission Specialist Educators, or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004, and as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba, Richard R. Arnold, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger.[38][39] Barbara Morgan, selected as back-up teacher to Christa McAuliffe in 1985, is considered to be the first Educator astronaut by the media, but she trained as a mission specialist.[40] The Educator Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s.[41][36]

Insignia

At NASA, persons selected as astronaut candidates receive a silver lapel pin. Once they have flown in space they receive a gold pin. 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. The United States Air Force also presents an Astronaut Badge to its pilots who exceed 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.

Deaths

Main article: Space disaster
The crew of STS-51-L. Front row L-R: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ronald McNair. Back row L-R: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik.
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The crew of STS-51-L. Front row L-R: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ronald McNair. Back row L-R: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik.

Space travel carries with it inherent risk and dangers. To date, nineteen people have been killed on five spaceflight missions, and at least ten more have been killed in ground-based training accidents. The five spaceflights which resulted in astronaut deaths are:

See also

References

  1. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Definition of "astronaut". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000). Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
  2. ^ a b NASA (2006). Astronaut Fact Book (.pdf) (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  3. ^ Marie MacKay (2005). Former astronaut visits USU (English). The Utah Statesman. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  4. ^ Bill Harwood (2007). STS-120 Quick-Look Data (English). CBS News. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  5. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Women of Space (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  6. ^ NASA. NASA's First 100 Human Space Flights (English). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  7. ^ a b c d Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Astronaut Statistics - as of 22 June 2007 (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  8. ^ NASA (2004). Walking in the Void (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  9. ^ NASA (2005). Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  10. ^ NASA (2005). Krikalev Sets Time-in-Space Record (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  11. ^ NASA (2007). Astronaut Suni Williams Sets the Record Straight, and Long (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  12. ^ NASA (2007). Sunita L. Williams Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Dismukes, Kim - NASA Biography Page Curator (December 15, 2005). Astronaut Biographies. Johnson Space Center,NASA. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  14. ^ a b реконмендовать другому. Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan press-release (Russian). fmprc.gov.cn. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  15. ^ NASA (2006). Sally K. Ride, Ph.D. Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  16. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Vladimir Remek Czech Pilot Cosmonaut (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  17. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Salyut 6 EP-7 (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  18. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Tamayo-Mendez (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  19. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Baudry (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  20. ^ NASA (1985). Taylor G. Wang Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  21. ^ Encyclopedia Astronautica (2007). Taylor Wang (English). Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  22. ^ NASA (1985). Rodolfo Neri Vela (Ph.D.) Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  23. ^ BBC News (2005). 1991: Sharman becomes first Briton in space (English). BBC News. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  24. ^ africaninspace.com (2002). First African in Space (English). HBD. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  25. ^ BBC News (2007). 1961: Russian cosmonaut spends day in space (English). BBC News. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  26. ^ Anatoly Zak (2000). Russia Cosmonaut Gherman Titov Dies (English). Space.com. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  27. ^ NASA (2007). John Herschel Glenn, Jr. (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  28. ^ NASA (2002). Byron K. Lichtenberg Biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  29. ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (2007). Paying for a Ride (English). Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  30. ^ a b BBC News (1990). Mir Space Station 1986-2001 (English). BBC News. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  31. ^ Spacefacts (1990). Akiyama (English). Spacefacts. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  32. ^ Leonard David (2004). Pilot Announced on Eve of Private Space Mission (English). Space.com. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  33. ^ Royce Carlton Inc. (2007). Michael Melvill, First Civilian Astronaut, SpaceShipOne (English). Royce Carlton Inc.. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  34. ^ a b c NASA (2006). Astronaut Candidate Training (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  35. ^ a b NASA (1995). Selection and Training of Astronauts (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  36. ^ a b NASA (2007). Astronaut Candidate Program (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  37. ^ NASA (2007). NASA Opens Applications for New Astronaut Class (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  38. ^ NASA (2004). 'Next Generation of Explorers' Named (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  39. ^ NASA (2004). NASA's New Astronauts Meet The Press (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  40. ^ NASA (2007). Barbara Radding Morgan - NASA Astronaut biography (English). NASA. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.
  41. ^ Tariq Malik (2007). NASA Assures That Teachers Will Fly in Space (English). Space.com. Retrieved on October 4, 2007.

External links


 
Translations: Translations for: Astronaut

Dansk (Danish)
n. - astronaut, rumpilot

Nederlands (Dutch)
astronaut, ruimtevaarder, dromer

Français (French)
n. - astronaute

Deutsch (German)
n. - Astronaut

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αστροναύτης

Italiano (Italian)
astronauta

Português (Portuguese)
n. - astronauta (m) (f)

Русский (Russian)
космонавт

Español (Spanish)
n. - astronauta

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - astronaut

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
宇航员, 太空人

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 太空飛行員, 太空人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 우주 비행사

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 宇宙飛行士

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فضائي, رائد الفضا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טייס-חלל, אסטרונאוט‬


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Modern Science. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Second Edition, Revised and updated Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 1993 by Houghton Mifflin Company . All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
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