Mostly astronauts. Some other people who are significant in some way.
Hailing from Mitchell, Indiana, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. He was the shortest of the Mercury astronauts at 5’5″ and one of the least talkative of the early astronauts. He flew the successful Liberty Bell 7 and Gemini 3 missions and gave his life for the space program … [Read more…]
One of the most complex of the Mercury astronauts, Alan Shepard was the first American in space and the fifth man to walk on the moon. In between, he worked closely with fellow Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton to take charge of the Astronaut Office and overcame an ear condition that nearly ended his career as … [Read more…]
Henri Landwirth is a Holocaust survivor who came to America looking for a fresh start. He went into the hotel business and worked his way up to become part owner of a few successful Disney World-area Holiday Inns, and then left it all to found non-profits like Give Kids The World, Dignity U Wear and … [Read more…]
From the time he was a young boy, Rick Husband dreamed of becoming an astronaut. While he was still in grade school, he was hooked whenever he saw live footage of the Mercury astronauts being launched into space. Other kids used to laugh at him when he talked about his dream. Astronauts just seemed larger … [Read more…]
The U.N. General Assembly has declared April 12th the International Day of Human Space Flight. Why this day? Well, on April 12, 1961, a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin was launched on a single orbit around Earth. It was an important breakthrough and one in a series of Space Race firsts on the Russian side. … [Read more…]
So you want to participate in a triathlon but that’s a little hard to do when you’re orbiting at an altitude of 370 kilometers. It’s not like the International Space Station has a swimming pool and your favorite athletic activities become a little challenging when you and everything around you are weightless. What should you … [Read more…]
Long before William McCool became a Space Shuttle astronaut, he had earned a reputation for being competitive. Attending high school in the 1970s, he was part of the track team and liked running so much that he often ran to the local library to study. At least one classmate recalled that McCool wasn’t very good … [Read more…]
Born in 1959, Michael Anderson never doubted that he would become an astronaut. The Space Race was in full swing and he grew up watching shows like “Star Trek,” which included fictional role models like Lieutenant Uhura. Real-life heroes included his father, who was an Air Force officer. He also watched the first moon landing … [Read more…]
Like most people of her generation, Laurel S. Clark recalled watching the Moon landings as a little girl. She never gave much thought to becoming an astronaut while growing up. She was more interested in wildlife, and anyway, all American astronauts were men at that time. Those fuzzy images of astronauts working on the Moon … [Read more…]
At the age of three years old, a young lady was preparing to attend school in Karnal, India, when she chose the formal name of “Kalpana”, meaning “imagination”, from three possible choices. She had been born on March 17, 1962, but this ambitious girl insisted on lying about her age so she could enroll in … [Read more…]