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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(17 March 1962) Kalpana Chawla (NASA) India. Due to my oversight and error Chawla was missed from Do you share a birthday with an astronaut? 11-17 March (no. 29). Her entry is at the top of this page as the reference I was using had her down as 1 July 1961.

Chawla’s second flight was on STS-107, the final flight of Columbia, on 16 January 2003. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on 1 February 2003.

She is regarded as a national hero in India.

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)

1 July 1963 Ed Lu (NASA) US.

2 July 1940 Georgi Ivanov (IK) Bulgaria.

2 July 1952 Linda M. Godwin (NASA) US.

2 July 1959 Wendy B. Lawrence (NASA) US.

3 July 1935 Harrison Jack Schmitt (NASA) US. Harrison Hagan “Jack” Schmitt is an American geologist, former NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and the most recent living person (as at 25 June 2024) — and only person without a background in military aviation—to have walked on the Moon.

3 July 1943 Norman Thagard (NASA) US

4 July 1961 Richard Garriott (Space Tourist) England

5 July 1952 Terence Henricks (NASA) US

7 July 1960 Kevin A. Ford (NASA) US.

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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