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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19 February 1932 Joseph P. Kerwin (NASA) US.

19 February 1948 Byron Lichtenberg (NASA) US.

19 February 1952 Rodolfo Neri Vela (NASA) Mexico.

19 February 1956 G. David Low (NASA) US.

20 February 1943 Aleksandr Aleksandrov (RKA) Russia. There were no details for Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov on Supercluster. The Wikipedia link provided here indicates that there might be some confusion between Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov (the Soviet cosmonaut born 20 February 1943) and Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov (the second Bulgarian cosmonaut born 1 December 1951).

20 February 1954 Vasili Tsibliyev (RKA).

20 February 1972 Anton Shkaplerov (RKA) Crimea.

21 February 1964 Mark E. Kelly (NASA) US. The first relatives to be selected in NASA history – Mark and Scott Kelly.

21 February 1964 Scott J. Kelly (NASA) US. The first relatives to be selected in NASA history – Scott and Mark Kelly.

22 February 1952 James Bagian (NASA) US.

23 February 1928 Vasili Lazarev (RKA) Russia.

23 February 1949 Marc Garneau (CSA) Canada.

23 February 1959 Clayton Anderson (NASA) US. Anderson spent 15 years trying to become an astronaut, being rejected 14 times before finally being selected in 1998. Succeeding in one of the most difficult and coveted jobs in the world through perseverance and a never-give-up mantra, Anderson employs NASA’s “Plan, Train and Fly (Execute)” philosophy. Stories of perseverance to attain your dreams abound in space. José M. Hernández is probably the most famous – his story was turned into a movie – A Million Miles Away details the life of Hernández, a Mexican-American astronaut, who is played by Michael Peña, and based on Hernandez’s autobiography Reaching for the Stars.

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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

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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