NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a Manned Maneuvering Unit outside Space Shuttle Challenger on shuttle mission STS-41-B in 1984. An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek ἄστρον (astron), meaning 'star', and ναύτης (nautes), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft ...
Astronaut requirements have changed with NASA's goals and missions. Today, to be considered for an astronaut position, applicants must meet the following
Astronaut, designation, derived from the Greek words for ‘star’ and ‘sailor,’ commonly applied in the West to an individual who has flown in outer space. As of 2022, 587 individuals from 41 countries had gone into orbit; 518 of these space fliers were men and 69 were women.
After making history on their journey around the moon, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen have come home.
Discover a definitive list of astronauts from NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and more. Explore bios, mission details, and careers of global space explorers, past and present. Your ultimate resource for astronaut information.
Astronauts are adventurers and scientists who work in space. Learn who astronauts are and what they do in space and on Earth.
Artemis II Astronauts Fly Away From Earth Toward the Moon After a day of testing the Orion capsule high above the planet, the crew of the NASA mission became the first people to head into deep ...
NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo. The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans ...