Astronaut word was firstly used British Writer "Percy Greg" in 1880. He had gave this name in novel"Across the Zodiac"An Astronaut or Cosmonaut is a person trained by a Human Spaceflight Program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a Spacecraft. While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.Until 2003, Astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military, or by civilian space agencies. However, with the sub-orbital flight of the privately-funded Spaceship One in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the Commercial Astronauts(1) 12 April 1961 The first men in Space:
1961 Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space and orbit the Earth, helping boost the Soviet space program and intensify the space race with the United States.The diminutive Gagarin, who stood a mere 5-foot-2, appeared ready to pursue a career as an industrial worker but found his passion for flying while attending technical school. He entered military flight training and earned his pilot’s wings at the controls of a MiG-15. In 1960, he was selected as one of the Soviet Union's first class of 20 cosmonauts. He excelled in the training and so was chosen to be the first man to enter space -- and perhaps partly because the Vostok-1 capsule was so cramped.
Space flight being very much a crapshoot at the time, Soviet authorities figured Gagarin was just as likely to die upon re-entering the atmosphere as he was to return safely. But return he did and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who hoped to use Gagarin’s success to strengthen the Soviet Union’s ballistic missile program, rushed to his side to bask in a little reflected glory.
Twenty-three days later, on May 5, Alan Shepard became the first American to enter sub-orbital space but it took nearly a year before a U.S. astronaut -- John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 -- successfully orbited the Earth.
Gagarin returned to flying jet aircraft and was killed in a training accident in 1968.
(2) 5 May 1961, first American Astronaut:
Forty-seven years ago today, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He launched aboard his Mercury-Redstone 3, named Freedom 7, to make an historic 15-minute suborbital flight.
(3) 6 August 1961
Before launch, cosmonauts in the launch bunker reminded Titov not to get his parachute lines tangled after ejection from the spacecraft, as had happened during training, or "they would be forced to expell him from the cosmonaut corps". Second manned orbital flight. The Soviet Union successfully launched Vostok II into orbit with Gherman S. Titov as pilot. The spacecraft carried life-support equipment, radio and television for monitoring the condition of the cosmonaut, tape recorder, telemetry system, biological experiments, and automatic and manual control equipment. After 17.5 orbits, the spacecraft reentered on August 7 and landed safely at 7:18 GMT near Krasny Kut, Saratov. Titov made a separate parachute landing in an ejector couch. Flight objectives: Investigation of the effects on the human organism of a prolonged flight in orbit and subsequent return to the surface of the Earth; investigation of man's ability to work during a prolonged period of weightlessness. Titov took manual control of spacecraft but suffered from space sickness. He was equipped with a professional quality Konvas movie camera, with which ten minutes of film of the earth were taken through the porthole. Both television and film images were taken of the interior of the spacecraft. Like Gagarin, Titov experienced problems with separation of the service module after retrofire. Titov was never to fly again, after being assigned to the Spiral spaceplane, which turned out to be a dead-end project.
(4) First for America: February 20, 1962, Glenn orbits Earth
The first American to orbit the Earth has landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
Marine Lieutenant John Glenn, 40, travelled about 81,000 miles (more than 130,000km) as he circled the globe three times at more than 17,000 mph (27,000kph).
Lieutenant Glenn controlled nearly two of the orbits himself after reporting "minor difficulties" with the automatic altitude control system as he completed the third circuit - the maximum anticipated.
Messages from the astronaut were transmitted by radio stations across the United States and United Kingdom and his progress was monitored by 18 ground stations around the world.
As he re-entered the atmosphere after his four-hour and 56-minute journey Lieutenant Glenn said: "Boy, that was a real fireball."
His spacecraft, Friendship Seven, landed at 2040 GMT 240 miles north-west of Puerto Rico, where it was picked up by the US destroyer Noa.
Altogether, 24 American ships were ready to pick up the astronaut and his craft from various locations across the globe.
"We are really proud of you" President Kennedy
The capsule was launched from the flaming Atlas rocket at 1447 GMT from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
President Kennedy followed the mission on television and telephoned the astronaut afterwards.
"We are really proud of you. You did a wonderful job," he said.
The Queen and British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, also cabled their congratulations.
Technical problems had delayed the mission 10 times - a total of 61 days.
The US has spent over £142m on the man-in-space programme so far and Nasa has planned another three manned orbital flights this year.
The US Earth orbit took place 10 months and 10 days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, making one circulation of the globe.
(5) 16 June 1963 - First woman in space is a Russian
“Originally it was intended that Tereshkova would launch first in Vostok 5 while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit in Vostok 6. However, this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky flying the joint mission with a woman aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. The State Space Commission nominated Tereshkova to pilot Vostok 6 at their meeting on 21 May and this was confirmed by Nikita Khrushchev himself. At the time of her selection, Tereshkova was ten years younger than the youngest Mercury Seven astronaut, Gordon Cooper.
After watching the successful launch of Vostok 5 on 14 June Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her back-up Solovyeva were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the launchpad by bus. After completing her communication and life support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a flawless countdown, two hours later Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman and first civilian to fly into space. Her call sign in this flight was Chayka (English: Seagull). Although Tereshkova was in the state of nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight , she orbited the earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space. With a single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts to that date. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.
Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched only two days after Vostok 5 which carried Valery Bykovsky into orbit for five days, landing only three hours after Tereshkova. The two vessels were at one point only 5km apart and established a radio link.
Even though there were plans for further female flights it took 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space, with the pressure of impending American Space Shuttle flights with female astronauts. None of the other four in Tereshkova’s cosmonaut group ever flew.”
Valentina Tereshkova is seen with other cosmonauts; Gagarin, Titov, Nikolayev and Popovich.
“It [the Earth] was breathtakingly beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. There is no way to describe the joy of seeing the Earth. It is blue, and more beautiful than any other planet.”
(6) 18 March 1965 First Spacewalk:
Today in 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first human being to exit an orbiting capsule and float free in space, attached only by an umbilical cord. This opened a new era in manned space flight and made possible projects such as today’s International Space Station.
Space flight was still a bit of a crude science in 1965. Yuri Gagarin had opened the age of manned space flight just four years earlier; the biggest difference in the intervening time was the introduction of multiple-man crews by both the Soviet and American programs. For this record-breaking flight, the Soviets converted their one-man ship design, called Vostok, to carry two crew chairs and an inflatable airlock to be deployed once the capsule was in orbit. The end result was called Voskhod 2.
Performing a spacewalk during the Voskhod 2 flight was important to the Soviets for two reasons. First, it would be a propaganda coup, demonstrating that the industrial and scientific might of the communist system was far ahead of the American competition. Further, as the space program continued, it would become necessary to both repair satellites in orbit and build things there from sections launched independently. Without these abilities, space exploration would continue to be nothing more than human payloads packed into tiny capsules pushed into low Earth orbit by converted ICBMs.
Voskhod 2 took to the sky on the morning of March 18th, 1965. Ninety minutes after reaching orbit, pilot Alexey Leonov extended the Volga airlock, a comparatively delicate device covered in thick fabric so it could be retracted for launch. Flight commander Pavel Belyayev remained inside the capsule as Leonov climbed into the airlock and closed the hatch behind him. After depressurizing the Volga device, he opened the outer hatch and pushed out into space, attached to the Voskhod capsule by a 50-foot umbilical cord. He stayed outside for twenty minutes as the spacecraft traveled from over Egypt all the way to eastern Siberia.
TASS, the Soviet government’s news agency, reported that the spacewalk proceeded without any problems. As was learned later, however, this was far from the truth. Leonov’s suit ballooned up, making it impossible for him to use his chest-mounted camera. He re-entered the airlock head first, then got stuck as he tried to turn around and close the outer hatch. To free himself, he was forced to bleed air from his spacesuit until the lower pressure allowed him to move his limbs once again.
Once back inside the capsule, Belyayev fired explosive bolts which jettisoned the Volga airlock. Much later Leonov revealed that he carried a suicide pill with him on the walk. If he was injured while outside the capsule or could not get back in, Belyayev would have been forced to eject the airlock and Leonov, leaving him in orbit instead of having both men die on re-entry. Whether future cosmonauts (or American astronauts) carried such pills is a matter of conjecture.
After 25 hours in orbit, Voskhod 2 began her return to Earth; one last challenge remained before the men. As with all Russian space missions, this one was slated to land somewhere inside the Soviet Union. While this did take place, the landing site ended up being a remote area in the Ural Mountains. Instead of being picked up in short order, the two cosmonauts had to spend the night in deep snow surrounded by wolves.
Alexey Leonov served as a cosmonaut for 26 more years, retiring in 1991. He was slated to be the commander of two more eventful flights: a circumlunar Soyuz flight and the first Soviet mission to the moon. After the American success in reaching that goal first, however, both flights were cancelled. Leonov only flew in space one more time as the commander of Soyuz 19, the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz Mission which took place in July, 1975.
Today, EVAs (the term used for space walks, standing for ‘extra-vehicular activities’) are an essential part of manned space flight. The International Space Station could not be expanded or maintained without them. During the early days of the Space Shuttle program, NASA developed the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a propulsion pack which allowed astronauts to do EVAs without tethers. After the 1986 Challenger accident, however, the MMU was deemed too risky for regular use and was retired. As of now, tethered spacewalks continue to be the method of choice whenever astronauts or cosmonauts need to leave the safety of their
