Astronaut
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An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek Template:Lang (Template:Transliteration), meaning 'star', and Template:Lang (Template:Transliteration), 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. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and space tourists.<ref name="fact">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="utah">Template:Cite web</ref>
"Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or the Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek Template:Lang).<ref name="vocabulary">Template:Cite web</ref> Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin "tàikōng" (Template:Lang), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China, the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and their foreign counterparts are all officially called hángtiānyuán (Template:Lang, meaning "celestial navigator" or literally "heaven-sailing staff").
Since 1961 and as of 2021, 600 astronauts have flown in space.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut.
Definition
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The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, with some focus on the point where the atmosphere becomes so thin that centrifugal force, rather than aerodynamic force, carries a significant portion of the weight of the flight object. The Template:Lang (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed the Kármán line, at an altitude of Template:Convert.<ref name="fai">Template:Cite web</ref> In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of Template:Convert<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> are awarded astronaut wings.
Template:As of, 552 people from 36 countries have reached Template:Convert or more in altitude, of whom 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond.<ref name="stats1">Template:Cite web</ref> Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, either to lunar orbit, the lunar surface, or, in one case, a loop around the Moon.Template:NoteTag Three of the 24—Jim Lovell, John Young and Eugene Cernan—did so twice.<ref name="hundred">Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:As of, under the U.S. definition, 558 people qualify as having reached space, above Template:Convert altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded Template:Convert in altitude, only one, Joseph A. Walker, exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62.1 miles) and he did it two times, becoming the first person in space twice.<ref name="stats1" /> Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5-man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks.<ref name="stats">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="void">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:As of, the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Oleg Kononenko, who has spent over 1100 days in space.<ref> Template:Cite news</ref> Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman, at 675 days.<ref name="paw">Template:Cite web</ref>
Terminology
[edit]In 1959, when both the United States and Soviet Union were planning, but had yet to launch humans into space, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his Deputy Administrator, Hugh Dryden, discussed whether spacecraft crew members should be called astronauts or cosmonauts. Dryden preferred "cosmonaut", on the grounds that flights would occur in and to the broader cosmos, while the "astro" prefix suggested flight specifically to the stars.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred "astronaut", which survived by common usage as the preferred American term.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to "cosmonaut".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
Astronaut
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A professional space traveler is called an astronaut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his 1930 short story "The Death's Head Meteor". 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) by J.-H. Rosny aîné, the word astronautique (astronautics) was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied in 1784 to balloonists. An early use of "astronaut" in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell's poem "The Astronaut", appearing in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society.<ref>Ingham, John L.: Into Your Tent, Plantech (2010): page 82.</ref>
The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950, and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year.<ref name="IAFpage">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name="biopage">Template:Cite web</ref> The European Space Agency similarly uses the term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps.<ref name="ESApage">Template:Cite web</ref>
Cosmonaut
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By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its predecessor, the Soviet space program) is called a cosmonaut in English texts.<ref name="biopage" /> The word is an Anglicization of kosmonavt (Template:Langx Template:IPA).<ref name = "space traveller">Template:Cite book</ref> Other countries of the former Eastern Bloc use variations of the Russian kosmonavt, such as the Template:Langx (although Poles also used Template:Lang, and the two words are considered synonyms).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Coinage of the term Template:Lang has been credited to Soviet aeronautics (or "cosmonautics") pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> The first cosmonaut was Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin, also the first person in space. He was part of the first six Soviet citizens, with German Titov, Yevgeny Khrunov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, and Grigoriy Nelyubov, who were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut and the first and youngest woman to have flown in space with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 in 1963.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 14 March 1995,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and thus became the first "American cosmonaut".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Taikonaut
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In Chinese, the term Template:Lang (Template:Lang, "cosmos navigating personnel") is used for astronauts and cosmonauts in general,<ref name="rus">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="rus2">Template:Cite web</ref> while Template:Lang (Template:Lang, "navigating celestial-heaven personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. Here, Template:Lang (Template:Lang, literally "heaven-navigating", or spaceflight) is strictly<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> defined as the navigation of outer space within the local star system, i.e. Solar System. The phrase Template:Lang (Template:Lang, "spaceman") is often used in Hong Kong and Taiwan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The term taikonaut is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, and the term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese People's Daily since the advent of the Chinese space program.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih (Template:Lang) from Malaysia used it in newsgroups.<ref name="chiew">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="chiew2">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Primary source inline
Other terms
[edit]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 professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies.
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While no nation other than Russia (and previously the Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched a crewed spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries, e.g. the Soviet-led Interkosmos program. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (Template:Langx) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word Template:Lang for "space"; the Malay term Template:Lang (deriving from angkasa meaning 'space') was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program (note its similarity with the Indonesian term antariksawan). Plans of the Indian Space Research Organisation to launch its crewed Gaganyaan spacecraft have spurred at times public discussion if another term than astronaut should be used for the crew members, suggesting vyomanaut (from the Sanskrit word Template:Lang meaning 'sky' or 'space') or gagannaut (from the Sanskrit word Template:Lang for 'sky').<ref name="Ananthaswamy 2010">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Mukunth 2018">Template:Cite web</ref> In Finland, the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, a Finnish American, has sometimes been referred to as Template:Lang, from the Finnish word Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Across Germanic languages, the word for "astronaut" typically translates to "space traveler", as it does with German's Raumfahrer, Dutch's ruimtevaarder, Swedish's rymdfarare, and Norwegian's romfarer.
For its 2022 Astronaut Group, the European Space Agency envisioned recruiting an astronaut with a physical disability, a category they called "parastronauts", with the intention but not guarantee of spaceflight.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The categories of disability considered for the program were individuals with lower limb deficiency (either through amputation or congenital), leg length difference, or a short stature (less than Template:Convert).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 23 November 2022, John McFall was selected to be the first ESA parastronaut;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> he has rejected the use of the term.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As of 2021 in the United States, astronaut status is conferred on a person depending on the authorizing agency:
- one who flies in a vehicle above Template:Convert for NASA or the military is considered an astronaut (with no qualifier)
- one who flies in a vehicle to the International Space Station in a mission coordinated by NASA and Roscosmos is a spaceflight participant
- one who flies above Template:Convert in a non-NASA vehicle as a crewmember and demonstrates activities during flight that are essential to public safety, or contribute to human space flight safety, is considered a commercial astronaut by the Federal Aviation Administration<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- one who flies to the International Space Station as part of a "privately funded, dedicated commercial spaceflight on a commercial launch vehicle dedicated to the mission ... to conduct approved commercial and marketing activities on the space station (or in a commercial segment attached to the station)" is considered a private astronaut by NASA<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (as of 2020, nobody has yet qualified for this status)
- a generally-accepted but unofficial term for a paying non-crew passenger who flies a private non-NASA or military vehicles above Template:Convert is a space tourist (as of 2020Template:Update inline, nobody has yet qualified for this statusTemplate:Dubious)
On July 20, 2021, the FAA issued an order redefining the eligibility criteria to be an astronaut in response to the private suborbital spaceflights of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The new criteria states that one must have "[d]emonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety" to qualify as an astronaut. This new definition excludes Bezos and Branson.
Space travel milestones
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The first human in space was Soviet Yuri Gagarin, who was launched on 12 April 1961, aboard Vostok 1 and orbited around the Earth for 108 minutes. The first woman in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, who launched on 16 June 1963, aboard Vostok 6 and orbited Earth for almost three days.
Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on 5 May 1961, on a 15-minute sub-orbital flight aboard Freedom 7. The first American to orbit the Earth was John Glenn, aboard Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride, during Space Shuttle Challenger's mission STS-7, on 18 June 1983.<ref name="ride1">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space aboard STS-47.
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA), (commonly called a "spacewalk"), on 18 March 1965, on the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission. This was followed two and a half months later by astronaut Ed White who made the first American EVA on NASA's Gemini 4 mission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Apollo 8, included American William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968.
The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from multiple other countries, mostly Soviet-allied but also including from France and Austria, to participate in Soyuz TM-7 and Soyuz TM-13, respectively. This made the Czechoslovak Vladimír Remek the first cosmonaut/astronaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States to fly to space in 1978 on a Soyuz-U rocket.<ref name="enc">Template:Cite web</ref>
On 23 July 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became the first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37.<ref name="tuan">Template:Cite web</ref> Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of black African descent, as well as the first Hispanic astronaut. In 1983, Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly into space. In April 1985, the Taiwanese-American Taylor Wang became the first ethnic Chinese person in space.<ref name="taylorbio">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="taylor">Template:Cite web</ref>
With the increase of seats on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. also began taking international astronauts. In 1983, Ulf Merbold of West Germany became the first non-US citizen to fly in a US spacecraft. In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first of eight Canadian astronauts to fly in space (through 2010).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry of France, in 1985.<ref name="mendez">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="baudry">Template:Cite web</ref> In same NASA flight as the Frenchman was the Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud, who became the first Muslim and Arab astronaut.<ref name="MC">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1985, Rodolfo Neri Vela became the first Mexican-born person in space.<ref name="vela">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space.<ref name="bbcsharmon">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2001, American Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, after paying a fee for a trip aboard Russian spacecraft Soyuz. In 2002, another private tourist, the South African Mark Shuttleworth, became the first citizen of an African country to fly into space.<ref name="mark">Template:Cite web</ref>
On 15 October 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on its own spacecraft, the Shenzhou 5.
Age milestones
[edit]The youngest person to reach space is Oliver Daemen, who was 18 years and 11 months old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-16.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Daemen, who was a commercial passenger aboard the New Shepard, broke the record of Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2. Titov remains the youngest human to reach orbit; he rounded the planet 17 times. Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness and the first person to sleep in space, twice.<ref name="age">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="titov">Template:Cite news</ref>
The oldest person to reach space is William Shatner, who was 90 years old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-18.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The oldest person to reach orbit is John Glenn, one of the Mercury 7, who was 77 when he flew on STS-95.<ref name="glenn">Template:Cite web</ref>
Duration and distance milestones
[edit]The longest time spent in space was by Russian Valeri Polyakov, who spent 438 days there.<ref name="stats"/> 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 farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was Template:Convert, when Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise went around the Moon during the Apollo 13 emergency.<ref name="stats"/>
Civilian and non-government milestones
[edit]The first civilian in space was Valentina Tereshkova<ref name="Valentina Vladimirovna TERESHKOVA">Template:Cite web</ref> aboard Vostok 6 (she also became the first woman in space on that mission). Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force, which did not accept female pilots at that time. A month later, Joseph Albert Walker became the first American civilian in space when his X-15 Flight 90 crossed the Template:Convert line, qualifying him by the international definition of spaceflight.<ref name="Civilians in Space">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Space.com Joseph A Walker">Template:Cite web</ref> Walker had joined the US Army Air Force but was not a member during his flight. The first people in space who had never been a member of any country's armed forces were both Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard Voskhod 1.
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.<ref name="lichten">Template:Cite web</ref> In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler and the first journalist in space 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".<ref name="smith">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="bbc1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="de">Template:Cite web</ref> Akiyama suffered severe space sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity.<ref name="bbc1"/>
The first self-funded space tourist was Dennis Tito on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on 28 April 2001.
Self-funded travelers
[edit]Template:Further The first person to fly on an entirely privately funded mission was Mike Melvill, piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a suborbital journey, although he was a test pilot employed by Scaled Composites and not an actual paying space tourist.<ref name="eve">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="rci">Template:Cite web</ref> Jared Isaacman was the first person to self-fund a mission to orbit, commanding Inspiration4 in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nine others have paid Space Adventures to fly to the International Space Station:
- Dennis Tito (American): 28 April – 6 May 2001
- Mark Shuttleworth (South African): 25 April – 5 May 2002
- Gregory Olsen (American): 1–11 October 2005
- Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): 18–29 September 2006
- Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): 7–21 April 2007, 26 March – 8 April 2009
- Richard Garriott (British / American): 12–24 October 2008
- Guy Laliberté (Canadian): 30 September 2009 – 11 October 2009
- Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano (both Japanese): 8 – 24 December 2021
Training
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Template:Main Template:See also The first NASA astronauts were selected for training in 1959.<ref name="comet">Template:Cite web</ref> Early in the space program, military jet test piloting and engineering training were often cited as prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, although neither John Glenn nor Scott Carpenter (of the Mercury Seven) had any university degree, in engineering or any other discipline at the time of their selection. Selection was initially limited to military pilots.<ref name="training">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="nolen">Template:Cite book</ref> The earliest astronauts for both the US and the USSR tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots.
Once selected, NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extravehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.<ref name="fact"/><ref name="training"/> Astronauts-in-training (astronaut candidates) may also experience short periods of weightlessness (microgravity) in an 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.<ref name="comet"/> 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 conducted from Edwards Air Force Base.
Astronauts in training must learn how to control and fly the Space Shuttle; further, it is vital that they are familiar with the International Space Station so they know what they must do when they get there.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
NASA candidacy requirements
[edit]- The candidate must be a citizen of the United States.
- The candidate must complete a master's degree in a STEM field, including engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics.
- The candidate must have at least two years of related professional experience obtained after degree completion or at least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time on jet aircraft.
- The candidate must be able to pass the NASA long-duration flight astronaut physical.
- The candidate must also have skills in leadership, teamwork and communications.
The master's degree requirement can also be met by:
- Two years of work toward a doctoral program in a related science, technology, engineering or math field.
- A completed Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree.
- Completion of a nationally recognized test pilot school program.
Mission Specialist Educator
[edit]- Applicants must have a bachelor's degree with teaching experience, including work at the kindergarten through twelfth grade level. An advanced degree, such as a master's degree or a doctoral degree, is not required, but is strongly desired.<ref name="announce">Template:Cite web</ref>
Mission Specialist Educators, or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004; as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba, Richard R. Arnold, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger.<ref name="nexgen">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ed">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="morgan1">Template:Cite web</ref> The Educator Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s.<ref name="fly">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="nasa">Template:Cite web</ref>
Health risks of space travel
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Astronauts are susceptible to a variety of health risks including decompression sickness, barotrauma, immunodeficiencies, loss of bone and muscle, loss of eyesight, orthostatic intolerance, sleep disturbances, and radiation injury.<ref name="NYT-20140127">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="Wired-20120723">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Mader-2011">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Puiu-20111109">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="CNN-20120109">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Space-20120313">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Radiology-20120313">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="WIRED-20140212">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="SKR-20171103">Template:Cite news</ref> A variety of large scale medical studies are being conducted in space via the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to address these issues. Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study in which astronauts (including former ISS commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. This study's techniques are now being applied to cover professional and Olympic sports injuries as well as ultrasound performed by non-expert operators in medical and high school students. It is anticipated that remote guided ultrasound will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations, where access to a trained physician is often rare.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Evaluation of Shoulder Integrity in Space: First Report of Musculoskeletal US on the International Space Station: http://radiology.rsna.org/content/234/2/319.abstract Template:Webarchive</ref>
A 2006 Space Shuttle experiment found that Salmonella typhimurium, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, became more virulent when cultivated in space.<ref name="ASU-20070923">Template:Cite web</ref> More recently, in 2017, bacteria were found to be more resistant to antibiotics and to thrive in the near-weightlessness of space.<ref name="GZM-20170913">Template:Cite web</ref> Microorganisms have been observed to survive the vacuum of outer space.<ref name=Dose>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name='Horneck'>Template:Cite journal</ref>
On 31 December 2012, a NASA-supported study reported that human spaceflight may harm the brain and accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease.<ref name="PLOS-20121231">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="spaceref">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="NasaWatch-20130103">Template:Cite web</ref>
In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to space exploration, including a human mission to Mars.<ref name="AP-20151029">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NASA-20151029oig">Template:Cite web</ref>
Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP), has been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the International Space Station (ISS).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 2 November 2017, scientists reported that significant changes in the position and structure of the brain have been found in astronauts who have taken trips in space, based on MRI studies. Astronauts who took longer space trips were associated with greater brain changes.<ref name="NEJM-20171102">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="QTZ-20171103">Template:Cite web</ref>
Being in space can be physiologically deconditioning on the body. It can affect the otolith organs and adaptive capabilities of the central nervous system. Zero gravity and cosmic rays can cause many implications for astronauts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In October 2018, NASA-funded researchers found that lengthy journeys into outer space, including travel to the planet Mars, may substantially damage the gastrointestinal tissues of astronauts. The studies support earlier work that found such journeys could significantly damage the brains of astronauts, and age them prematurely.<ref name="TI-20181002">Template:Cite news</ref>
Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five Enterobacter bugandensis bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue assuring a medically healthy environment for astronauts.<ref name="EA-20181122">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="BMC-20181123">Template:Cite journal</ref>
A study by Russian scientists published in April 2019 stated that astronauts facing space radiation could face temporary hindrance of their memory centers. While this does not affect their intellectual capabilities, it temporarily hinders formation of new cells in brain's memory centers. The study conducted by Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) concluded this after they observed that mice exposed to neutron and gamma radiation did not impact the rodents' intellectual capabilities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
A 2020 study conducted on the brains of eight male Russian cosmonauts after they returned from long stays aboard the International Space Station showed that long-duration spaceflight causes many physiological adaptions, including macro- and microstructural changes. While scientists still know little about the effects of spaceflight on brain structure, this study showed that space travel can lead to new motor skills (dexterity), but also slightly weaker vision, both of which could possibly be long lasting. It was the first study to provide clear evidence of sensorimotor neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change through growth and reorganization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Food and drink
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An astronaut on the International Space Station requires about Template:Cvt mass of food per meal each day (inclusive of about Template:Cvt packaging mass per meal).
Space Shuttle astronauts worked with nutritionists to select menus that appealed to their individual tastes. Five months before flight, menus were selected and analyzed for nutritional content by the shuttle dietician. Foods are tested to see how they will react in a reduced gravity environment. Caloric requirements are determined using a basal energy expenditure (BEE) formula. On Earth, the average American uses about Template:Convert of water every day. On board the ISS astronauts limit water use to only about Template:Convert per day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Insignia
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In Russia, cosmonauts are awarded Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation upon completion of their missions, often accompanied with the award of Hero of the Russian Federation. This follows the practice established in the USSR where cosmonauts were usually awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
At NASA, those who complete astronaut candidate training 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, after participation on a spaceflight. The United States Air Force also presents an Astronaut Badge to its pilots who exceed Template:Convert in altitude.
Deaths
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Template:As of, eighteen astronauts (fourteen men and four women) have died during four space flights. By nationality, thirteen were American, four were Russian (Soviet Union), and one was Israeli.
Template:As of, eleven people (all men) have died training for spaceflight: eight Americans and three Russians. Six of these were in crashes of training jet aircraft, one drowned during water recovery training, and four were due to fires in pure oxygen environments.
Astronaut David Scott left a memorial consisting of a statuette titled Fallen Astronaut on the surface of the Moon during his 1971 Apollo 15 mission, along with a list of the names of eight of the astronauts and six cosmonauts known at the time to have died in service.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Space Mirror Memorial, which stands on the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, is maintained by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation and commemorates the lives of the men and women who have died during spaceflight and during training in the space programs of the United States. In addition to twenty NASA career astronauts, the memorial includes the names of an X-15 test pilot, a U.S. Air Force officer who died while training for a then-classified military space program, and a civilian spaceflight participant.
See also
[edit]Explanatory notes
[edit]References
[edit]External links
[edit]Template:Wiktionary Template:Commons category
- Template:Cite web
- NASA: How to become an astronaut 101 Template:Webarchive
- List of International partnership organizations Template:Webarchive
- Encyclopedia Astronautica: Phantom cosmonauts
- collectSPACE: Astronaut appearances calendar
- spacefacts Spacefacts.de
- Manned astronautics: facts and figures
- Astronaut Candidate Brochure online Template:Webarchive
Template:Clear Template:People currently in space Template:Spaceflight Template:U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Template:Authority control Template:Portal bar