Stargazing Guy

Follow for a weekly list of forthcoming astronaut* birthdays.

Maybe you share a birthday?!

If not, perhaps it will be you who adds your name to the list?!

If you do share a birthday, what does it mean to you?

Do you feel a connection, pride? They take to the skies (on controlled explosions) to improve the world, to explore (to travel to strange new worlds).

__________________________________________________________________

15 April 1921 Georgi Beregovoi (RKA) Ukraine

15 April 1951 Marsha Ivins (NASA) US.

15 April 1951 John L. Phillips (NASA) US.

15 April 1956 Gregory Harbaugh (NASA) US.

15 April 1960 Mikhail Korniyenko (RKA) Russia

15 April 1965 Soichi Noguchi (JAXA) Japan

16 April 1956 David McDowell Brown (NASA) US. For some reason there appears to be no entry for Brown on supercluster.com, so I have added a link to findagrave.com, which confirms “In 1996, he was selected as a Mission Specialist in the NASA Space Shuttle program and was an Astronaut on the shuttle Columbia science and research mission flight on 16 January 2003. On 1 February 2003, NASA lost all contact with the shuttle Columbia just minutes before scheduled landing time. A short time later it was confirmed that the Columbia had exploded over eastern Texas and that there were no survivors.”

The following asteroids were named in memory of the other six members of STS-107: 51823 Rickhusband, 51824 Mikeanderson, 51825 Davidbrown, 51826 Kalpanachawla, 51828 Ilanramon and 51829 Williemccool. True heroes and icons in an age where the words lose their meaning.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:STS-107_crew_in_orbit.jpg

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crew_of_STS-107,_official_photo.jpg

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Space_Shuttle_Columbia_tribute_poster.jpg

Space is hard.

Per aspera ad astra

(Through hardships to the stars)

16 April 1959 Michael R. Barratt (NASA) US. As I write, on Tuesday 9 April 2024, Barratt is in actual space, piloting the SpaceX Crew-8 mission that launched on 4 March 2024 to the International Space Station. Hope he had a great birthday, orbiting the Earth!

17 April 1964 Andrei Borisenko (RKA) Russia

20 April 1945 Gregory Olsen (Space Tourist) US. Space tourist or American scientist cosmonaut (as stated by The Encyclopedia Astronautica (no longer actively maintained) or Spaceflight Participant (as stated by SPACEFACTS).I’ll let you decide. He is recorded here for all the same reasons as the others – they take to the skies (on controlled explosions) to improve the world, to explore (to travel to strange new worlds).

20 April 1955 Donald Pettit (NASA) US.

21 April 1951 Aleksandr Laveykin (RKA) Russia.

21 April 1962 Sergei Zalyotin (RKA) Russia.

__________________________________________________________________

Thanks to www.supercluster.com for the bios and links.

Also, thanks to www.pillownaut.com for the initial list of birthdays, and the many, many resources on the internet, especially Wikipedia and NASA.      

* = includes cosmonaut, taikonaut, parastronaut, spaceflight participant, space tourist, etc

___________________________________________________________________

PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Remember, hope lives here.

Contact Stargazing Guy for any copyright-related requests or queries @ stargazer1@stargazingguy.co.uk