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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4 March 1965 Yuri Lonchakov (RKA) Kazakhstan.

5 March 1953 Valery Korzun (RKA) Russia.

5 March 1962 Robert Curbeam (NASA) US.

6 March 1927 Gordon Cooper (NASA) US.

6 March 1937 Valentina Tereshkova (RKA) Russia. When you think about icons there are very few real examples – Valentina Tereshkova is certainly an icon, in my book. The first woman in space – on Vostok 6 (launched on 16 June 1963). The only woman to have operated a solo mission. The only woman in space for nearly 20 years. Since 1963 over 73 women had completed spaceflights out of over 634 space travellers.

Image: Valentina Tereshkova, outside the Vostok 6 capsule

6 March 1946 Patrick Baudry (CNES) Cameroon.

7 March 1936 Loren Acton (NASA) US.

7 March 1940 Viktor Savinykh (RKA) Russia.

8 March 1952 Vladimir Vasyutin (RKA) Ukraine.

9 March 1934 Yuri Gagarin (RKA) Russia. The week between 4 and 10 March is packed with heroes and icons – Valentina Tereshkova above and the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia below. Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful crewed spaceflight, became the first human to journey into outer space. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961.

The whole planet knew him and loved him. Public Service Broadcasting, Gagarin

10 March 1961 Laurel Clark (NASA) US. Clark was a NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist. She died along with her six fellow crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on 1 February 2003. 51827 Laurelclark (provisional designation 2001 OH38) is a background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 July 2001, by astronomers of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program at Palomar Observatory in California, United States. The asteroid was named for astronaut Laurel Clark.

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)

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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