Astronaut Facts for Kids

25 Astronaut Facts For Kids

1. An astronaut is a human who has trained to participate in a human spaceflight mission.
2. The term astronaut applies to any country or nationality, but some countries used different terms.
3. The former Soviet Union and modern-day Russia refer to their astronauts as cosmonauts and China refers to its astronauts as taikonauts.
4. More than 600 astronauts have traveled into space, with around 80% of those coming from the United States, Russia, and the former Soviet Union.
5. The three largest government space agencies today are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Russian Federation Space Agency (RFSA), and the European Space Agency (ESA).
6. Astronauts, spacecrafts, and space probes were pioneered by the United States and the former Soviet Union during a competition know as the Space Race.
7. Modern-day government space agencies, like NASA, ESA, and the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) along with private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are leading the charge in space exploration and space travel advancements.
8. Being an astronaut is a dangerous job, from take-off to landing there are a lot of things that can go wrong with deadly results.
9. Astronauts have around a 3% chance of their being a fatal accident on a spaceflight mission.
10. Around 30 brave astronauts have lost their lives while training or attempting to travel to or from space.
11. Out of the 30 astronauts lost in the line of duty, only 3 died while in space, the rest lost their lives in training or while in the Earth’s atmosphere.
12. The two worst disasters involving astronauts were the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28th, 1986, and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1st, 2003. Each Space Shuttle was carrying seven astronauts when the disasters occurred.
13. The first astronaut to travel into space was Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12th, 1961.
14. The first American astronaut to travel into space was America test pilot and astronaut Alan Shepard on May 5th, 1961.
15. The first female astronaut to travel into space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on June 16th, 1963.
16. The first astronaut to conduct a tethered spacewalk was Soviet Air Force cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on March 18th, 1964.
17. The first astronaut to die during a spaceflight was Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Konarov on April 24th, 1967.
18. The first astronauts to travel beyond low Earth orbit were American astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders on December 24th, 1968.
19. The first astronaut to land on the Moon was American astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20th, 1969.
20. The first astronaut to conduct an untethered spacewalk was American astronaut Bruce McCandless II on February 7th, 1984.
21. The astronaut to spend the longest time in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov with 438 days.
22. The first civilian to travel into space was Japanese TV journalist and professor Toyohiro Akuyama on December 2nd, 1990.
23. The first space tourist to pay for a trip to space was American engineer and entrepreneur Dennis Tito on April 28th, 2001.
24. The first privately funded spaceflight was by SpaceShipOne with American test pilot Mike Melvill on June 21st, 2004.
25. The first astronauts to travel to space on a commercial spacecraft were American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on May 30th, 2020.

Astronaut Pictures

Pictures are one of the best ways for people to learning about something. That is why we are providing you with the below images to help you with your research on astronauts. Below you will find three pictures that represent astronauts. These pictures should help you better understand astronauts and what they look like.

A picture of an astronaut conducting a spacewalk.

A picture of a astronaut on the Moon.

A picture of a astronaut on Mars.