A-Z List
Former Astronauts
Those who have left NASA, including those who are deceased.
Neil A. Armstrong
First Man to Walk on the Moon
Learn more about Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more.
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John H. Glenn, Jr.
First American to Orbit the Earth
Learn more about Astronaut John Glenn, including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more.
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Sally K. Ride
First American Woman in Space
Learn more about Astronaut Sally Ride, including when she was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, her flight experience, education, background and more.
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Guion S. Bluford, Jr.
First African American in Space
Learn more about Astronaut Guion S. Bluford, Jr., including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more.
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Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
First American in Space
Learn more about Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more.
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Acton-Coleman
Collins – Ham
Hammond – Malberba
Marshburn – Sacco
Satcher -Zamka
We Remember Our Fallen Astronauts
Remembering Columbia
The Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off on Jan. 16, 2003, for a 17-day science mission featuring numerous microgravity experiments. Upon reentering the atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when falling foam from the external tank struck the underside of the left wing.
The orbiter and its seven crewmembers (Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David Brown, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla) were lost approximately 15 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board was created to determine the cause of the Columbia accident and to recommend ways to improve the safety of space shuttle flights.
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Remembering Challenger
Just 73 seconds after launch on the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, a booster engine failed and caused the shuttle Challenger to break apart, taking the lives of all seven crew members.
President Ronald Reagan eulogized the crew, quoting from John Gillespie Magee’s poem High Flight: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’ “
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Remembering Apollo 1
On Jan. 27, 1967, tragedy struck on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy during a preflight test for what was to be the first crewed flight of Apollo, scheduled to launch Feb. 21, 1967. Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the command module.
America honored the fallen heroes in funerals with full military honors. NASA established an investigative board to determine the cause of the fire and, in the months that followed, the board identified both technical and management lapses that led to the accident. Congressional committees held hearings to fully understand the accident’s causes and NASA’s planned changes to prevent a recurrence. They included a redesign of the Apollo spacecraft and management and safety culture changes.
On January 27, 1967 at 6:31 p.m. EST during a routine simulated launch test onboard the Apollo Saturn I rocket, an electrical short circuit inside the Apollo Command Module ignited the pure oxygen environment and within a matter of seconds all three Apollo 1 crewmembers perished.
