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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22 April 1976 Yelena Serova (RKA) Russia.

25 April 1961 Frank De Winne (ESA) Belgium.

26 April 1977 Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) Italy

27 April 1942 Valeri Polyakov (RKA) Russia. Polyakov is the record holder for the longest single stay in space, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months (437 days 18 hours) during one trip, between 8 January 1994 and 22 March 1995. Upon landing, he opted not to be carried the few feet between the Soyuz capsule and a nearby lawn chair, instead walking the short distance. In doing so, he wished to prove that humans could be physically capable of working on the surface of Mars after a long-duration transit phase. His combined space experience was more than 22 months. Polyakov’s record for longest cumulative time in space of 678 days over two missions stood until surpassed in 1999 by cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev with a total of 747 days in space during three different missions. He died on 19 September 2022.

27 April 1953 Ellen S. Baker (NASA) US.

28 April 1943 John Oliver Creighton (NASA) US.

28 April 1949 Jerome Apt (NASA) US. His NASA bio confirms his birth date as 28 April 1949, so it looks like there was a little typo on the Supercluster.com page.

28 April 1956 Paul Lockhart (NASA) US.

28 April 1957 Léopold Eyharts (ESA) France.

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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