Is an American astronaut and a United States navy Officer with paternal Indian
and maternal Sloven roots
Most famous astronaut of all, who was the first man to set foot jon the
Answers
Despite abandoning a lunar landing after an oxygen tank exploded two days into their 1970 mission, the men aboard Apollo 13 set the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth. Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise had limited heat, power, and water as they swung around the far side of the moon, 248,655 miles from Earth.
Sally Ride
Sally Ride was the third woman in space overall, following Soviet Union cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1963. Photo: Courtesy of NASA
In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She also holds the record for the youngest American astronaut in space. At age 32, she was a crew member on the space shuttle Challenger for the STS-7 mission. She returned to space in 1984, aboard the same shuttle. She was in training for a third mission on Challenger, but it was cancelled when the shuttle broke apart during launch with a different crew in 1986, killing all seven people on board.
Guion Bluford
Guion Bluford, pictured here in 1992, went to NASA after serving as a Air Force fighter pilot. Photo: Courtesy of NASA
Guion Bluford made history as the first African American in space. The former Air Force fighter pilot had served in Vietnam in the mid-1960s and became an astronaut in 1979. His first mission was STS-8 on the Challenger in 1983, lasting six days. Bluford went on to complete three more shuttle missions.
Ellison Onizuka
Ellison Onizuka was an Air Force test pilot before joining NASA in 1978. Photo: Courtesy of NASA.
Born in Hawaii to parents of Japanese descent, Ellison Onizuka became the first Asian American in space in 1985. He got his start as a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force. He died on his second mission at age 39, in the Challenger disaster of 1986.
Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross
Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross share a NASA record. Photos: Courtesy of NASA
Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross are tied for the most spaceflights by NASA astronauts. They’ve both been to space seven times. Ross’s first mission was on the space shuttle Atlantis in 1985. He was with NASA until his retirement in 2012. Chang-Diaz, who is of Costa Rican and Chinese descent, flew his first mission in 1986 aboard the space shuttle Columbia. He retired in 2005.
Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla applied for the astronaut corps in 1991 after becoming a U.S. citizen. Photo: Courtesy of NASA
Kalpana Chawla, born in Karnal, India, was the first person of Indian descent to go to space. She moved to the United States in 1982 for graduate school and became a citizen in 1991. Her first mission was aboard the Columbia shuttle in 1997. She died on her second mission in 2002, when the Columbia broke apart upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, killing Chawla and her six crewmates.
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison served as a doctor in the Peace Corps and and worked at the CDC before joining NASA. Photo: Courtesy of NASA
Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space in 1992, aboard the Endeavor. She was born in Alabama, but grew up in Chicago in the Woodlawn and Morgan Park neighborhoods. She went to Stanford at age 16 and then on to Cornell Medical School. As a private practice doctor, she started taking engineering courses and eventually applied to be an astronaut. She carried a picture of the pioneering African American pilot Bessie Coleman with her on her first mission to space.
Michael López-Alegría
Michael López-Alegría prepares for a spacewalk in 2002. Photo: Courtesy of NASA
Michael López-Alegría holds the American record for the most extravehicular activities (EVAs). Born in Madrid and raised in California, he got his start as a Navy pilot. His first NASA mission was in 1995, and he would go on to perform ten spacewalks, for a total of nearly 68 hours outside the spacecraft.
John Herrington
John Herrington took the flag of the Chicksaw Nation, the tribe of which he was a member, on his space flight. Photo: Courtesy of NASA