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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9 October 1957 Yuri Uschov (RKA) Russia. Uschov is in the top 5% for total time is space. He has racked up 552 days, 22 hours and 25 minutes! He has also carried out 7 spacewalks – totalling over one day.

10 October 1946 Franco Malerba (ASI) Italy. The first Italian is space.

10 October 1958 John M. Grunsfeld (NASA) US. Grunsfield is in the top 5% of astronauts for the number and duration of spacewalks! 8 spacewalks and a total time of 2 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes!

10 October 1962 Rex J. Walheim (NASA) US. Walheim served as mission specialist and flight engineer on STS-135, on Atlantis bringing the Space Shuttle Program to a successful close with her 33rd and final mission. Atlantis launched on 8 July 2011 and returned to Earth 21 July 2011.

10 October 1966 Zhai Zhigang (CSNA) China. During the Shenzhou 7 mission on 27 September 2008, Zhigang became the first Chinese citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

11 October 1936 C. Gordon Fullerton (NASA) US. Fullerton, along with Fred W. Haise, a civilian pilot, teamed up for the first flight of the shuttle Enterprise, a vehicle that was built purely for approach and landing tests and was incapable of flying into orbit, on 12 August 1977. In later missions, he was one of two pilots on the Columbia (STS-3 between 22 March 1982 and 30 March 1982) and the commander on board the Challenger (STS-51-F between 29 July 1985 and 6 August 1985).

12 October 1932 Jake Garn (NASA) US. Garn became the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a payload specialist during NASA mission STS-51-D (12 April to 19 April 1985).

12 October 1971 Oleg Novitskiy (RKA) Russia. Novitskiy is in the top 5% of all space travellers, having spent just over 531 days in space.

13 October 1952 Michael R. Clifford (NASA) US.

13 October 1962 Michael T. Good (NASA) US.

13 October 1964 Nie Haisheng (CSNA) China. Asteroid 9517 Neihaisheng is named for him. The asteroid was discovered 3 November 1977 at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Nankin, and is classified as a Main-belt Asteroid. Haisheng is a space hero of China. In the Shenzhou spaceship, he and Fei Junlong made a series of scientific experiments in space for five days. They landed smoothly on 17 October 2005 on the grasslands in Nei Monggol, Inner Mongolia. [Ref: Minor Planet Circ. 55720].

15 October 1964 Roberto Vittori (ESA) Italy. Vittori was the last non-American to fly aboard the Shuttle, the penultimate mission of the American Space Shuttle Program on 16 May 2011, on STS-134 (Endeavour).

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