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).

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2 October 1939 Yury Glazkov (RKA) Russia. Glazkov flew aboard Soyuz 24 in February 1977. He spent eighteen days aboard the Salyut 5 space station.

3 October 1935 Charles Duke (NASA) US. He became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon as lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 on 21 April 1972. Duke left two items on the Moon, both of which he photographed. The most famous is a plastic-encased photo portrait of his family taken by NASA photographer Ludy Benjamin. The reverse of the photo was signed and thumb printed by Duke’s family and bore this message: “This is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth, who landed on the Moon on the twentieth of April 1972.”

Credit: Charles Duke. (2023, September 14). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Duke

A little less well known is that the second item was a commemorative medal issued by the Air Force, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1972. With approval, Duke took two silver medallions commemorating the anniversary. He left one on the Moon and donated the other to the Air Force. 

3 October 1951 Kathryn D. Sullivan (NASA) US. Sullivan was the first American woman to walk in space on 11 October 1984 – a slightly delayed birthday present.

4 October 1957 Gregory Linteris (NASA) US.

5 October 1929 Richard F. Gordon (NASA) US. Gotdon was one of 24 people to have flown to the Moon, as the command module pilot of the 1969 Apollo 12 mission which orbited the Moon 45 times. He was slated to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 18, but that mission was canceled because of budget cuts.

Bloody stupid idiots! Budget cuts?! What were they thinking?!

Credit: https://gifer.com/en/5nZE

5 October 1930 Pavel Popovich (RKA) Ukraine. Popovich was the fourth cosmonaut in space, the sixth person in orbit, the eighth person, and first Ukrainian, in space.

5 October 1958 Brent W. Jett (NASA) US. With a name like that he was born to fly F-14 Tomcats!

5 October 1958 André Kuipers (ESA) Netherlands. Kuipers is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004.

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One other birthday to mention before we move on:

5 October 1961 Stargazing Guy (not affiliated) Singapore. Yes, that is yours truly, and I am honoured to share my birthday with four astronauts*.

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6 October 1978 Liu Yang (CSNA) China. On 16 June 2012, Yang became the first Chinese woman in space!

7 October 1969 Karen Nyberg (NASA) US. Nyberg became the 50th woman in space on her first mission in 2008.

8 October 1956 Janice E. Voss (NASA) US.

8 October 1959 Carlos Noriega (NASA) Peru. Noriega has logged over 461 hours in space including over 19 EVA hours in 3 spacewalks.

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

Also, thanks to www.pillownaut.com for the list of birthdays.      

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

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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