Astronaut

hide

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 SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut.

For more information about Astronaut, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

News tagged with astronauts

results timeline

Space Robot Can Autonomously Reconfigure Itself

Electronics / Robotics

Jun 15, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (14) | 6

A robot designed to work in space should ideally be a Jack of all trades, with the ability to perform a wide variety of tasks by itself. By having one robot that can handle many jobs, astronauts can cut down ...

Astronauts trying to revive Hubble spectrograph (AP)

Stuck bolt, dead battery bedevil Hubble repairs

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

May 17, 2009 | 4.1 / 5 (9) | 9

(AP) -- Spacewalkers' specially designed tools couldn't dislodge a balky bolt interfering with repairs Sunday at the Hubble Space Telescope, so they took an approach more familiar to people puttering around ...

Beyond Apollo: Moon Tech Takes a Giant Leap

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Apr 09, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (13) | 12

The flight computer onboard the Lunar Excursion Module, which landed on the Moon during the Apollo program, had a whopping 4 kilobytes of RAM and a 74 KB "hard drive." In places, the craft's outer skin was ...

Space station's new solar wings open easily (AP)

Space station's new solar wings open easily (Update 2)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Mar 20, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(AP) -- Astronauts successfully unfurled the newly installed solar wings at the international space station Friday, a nerve-racking procedure that went exceedingly well and brought the orbiting outpost to ...

Astro-bat feared dead after shuttle launch

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Mar 18, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (6) | 2

The seven astronauts onboard the space shuttle Discovery had an unexpected companion during their liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center earlier this week, the US space agency said.

Astronauts surprised by holiday turkey dinners

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 26, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(AP) -- Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts thought they were going to give thanks with pantry leftovers Thursday as their mission drew to a close, but found turkey dinners awaiting them.

Baby can wait as expectant dad finishes spacewalk

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 21, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(AP) -- A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

Astronauts get extra work done in 1st spacewalk (AP)

Astronauts get extra work done in 1st spacewalk (Update)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | not rated yet | 2

(AP) -- A pair of spacewalking astronauts, one of them a surgeon, hustled through antenna and cable work outside the International Space Station on Thursday and even whipped off an extra chore.

Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on supply mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 16, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Space shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew began an 11-day delivery flight to the International Space Station on Monday with a 2:28 p.m. EST launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in ...

Circus tycoon, 2 crew board orbiting space station (AP)

Circus tycoon clowns around aboard space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(AP) -- A Canadian circus billionaire boarded the International Space Station on Friday after a smooth ride up from Earth, and promptly played the entertainer by donning a red clown nose for a camera.

A Second Look at Apollo 11

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 01, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (14) | 10

A month after LROC's first image of the Apollo 11 landing site was acquired, LRO passed over again providing the LROC instrument a new view of the historic site. ...

Astronauts pack Buzz Lightyear for ride home

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 07, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0

(AP) -- The astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle and station packed up Buzz Lightyear on Monday for the ride home from "infinity and beyond."

Spacewalk under way despite approaching space junk (AP)

Spacewalk performed despite approaching space junk

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 03, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 1

(AP) -- Two astronauts stepped out on a spacewalk to install a new tank of space station coolant Thursday as a large piece of orbiting junk headed their way.

Moon Rock Turns Out to be Fake

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 01, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (7) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Dutch national Rijksmuseum made an embarrassing announcement last week that one of its most loved possessions, a moon rock, is a fake -- just an old piece of petrified wood that's never ...

Astronauts moving huge chest of drawers in orbit (AP)

Huge chest of drawers hoisted aboard space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Aug 31, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(AP) -- The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and station moved a giant chest of drawers from one spacecraft to the other Monday, and hitched it to the orbiting outpost.