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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24 October 1961 Susan Still (NASA) US. Still logged 472 hours in space over two missions and is the second woman to pilot a space shuttle. She recalled the first moments of piloting the space shuttle alongside the senior pilot and mission-in-charge:

“Looking down at Earth from space the first time … it’s like every dream come true. Even though you’ve seen pictures of Earth from space, it’s not the same as being in space and looking at Earth. It was very rewarding.”

24 October 1966 Jing Haipeng (CSNA) China. Haipeng is the first Chinese astronaut to have flown on four missions: Shenzhou 7, Shenzhou 9, Shenzhou 11 and Shenzhou 16. He is also (as I write this – 16 October 2023) actually in space! Launching on Shenzhou 16 on 30 May 2023 is onboard China’s answer to the International Space Station, the Tiangong space station.

25 October 1935 Rusty Schweickart (NASA) US.

26 October 1940 Gennadi Strekalov (RKA) Russia.

26 October 1955 Stephen Robinson (NASA) US.

27 October 1946 Terry Hart (NASA) US.

27 October 1946 Steven R. Nagel (NASA) US.

27 October 1953 Michael A. Baker (NASA) US.

29 October 1952 Valeri Tokarev (RKA) Russia. Tokarev was a Russian astronaut in NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He was a crewmember on STS-96, which flew 27 May 1999 – 6 June 1999, and was the first shuttle to dock at the International Space Station.

For those Star Trek fans, in 2143, the assignment patch for mission STS-96 was on display in the 602 Club. This patch bore the astronaut’s last name, written in Cyrillic.

The 602 Club was a bar in Mill Valley on Earth in the 22nd century as shown in Star Trek: Enterprise.

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