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92-465: Preliminary research work was undertaken by George F. Bond , who named the project after the Book of Genesis , which prophesised humans would gain dominion over the oceans. Bond began investigations in 1957 to develop theories about saturation diving . Bond's team exposed rats , goats , monkeys , and human beings to various gas mixtures at different pressures. By 1963 they had collected enough data to test

184-531: A human mission to Mars . Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP) , has been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On 2 November 2017, scientists reported that significant changes in

276-724: A "spacewalk"), on 18 March 1965, on the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission. This was followed two and a half months later by astronaut Ed White who made the first American EVA on NASA's Gemini 4 mission. The first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Apollo 8 , included American William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968. The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from other " socialist " (i.e. Warsaw Pact and other Soviet-allied) countries to fly on its missions, with

368-673: A 2-person crew at a depth of 10 m (33 ft) near Marseilles, placed on September 14, 1962, and Conshelf II , placed in the Red Sea at depths of 11 and 27 m (36 and 89 ft) on June 15, 1963. Later that year, the Kennedy administration decided to open a new "race" frontier, directing the navy to begin the SEALAB program. SEALAB I was commanded by Captain Bond, who became known as "Papa Topside". SEALAB I proved that saturation diving in

460-460: A 2024 article that "There is greater evidence that Berry Cannon died from electrocution than CO 2 poisoning." The SEALAB program came to a halt, and although the SEALAB III habitat was retrieved, it was eventually scrapped. Aspects of the research continued, but no new habitats were built. NCEL (now a part of Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center ) of Port Hueneme, California ,

552-580: A 21.6% oxygen, 4% nitrogen, and 74.4% helium environment for six days. In phase D experiments at the United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit in 1963, the subjects performed the world's first saturation dive at a depth of 100 feet of seawater (fsw) in a 7% oxygen, 7% nitrogen, and 86% helium environment for 6 days. In phase E trials in 1963 divers were saturated for 12 days at 198 fsw breathing 3.9% oxygen, 6.5% nitrogen and 89.6% helium. A 27-hour linear ascent

644-488: A 52-second, 302-foot buoyant ascent from the forward escape trunk of the U.S. Navy submarine USS Archerfish . Both men received the Legion of Merit in 1960 for establishing the feasibility of deep submarine escape by locking out. Albert R. Behnke proposed the idea of exposing humans to increased ambient pressures long enough for the blood and tissues to become saturated with inert gases in 1942. In 1957, Bond began

736-707: A Diving and Submarine Medical Officer and served as Squadron Medical Officer from 1954 to 1958. Later that year, Bond transferred to the Naval Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, Connecticut , where he served as the Officer-in-Charge until 1964. It was during this time that Bond conducted his earliest experiments into saturation diving techniques. On October 2, 1959, approximately 15 miles southwest of Key West, Commander Bond and Chief Engineman Cyril Tuckfield safely completed

828-549: A crewed spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries, e.g. the Soviet-led Interkosmos program. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (French: spationaute ) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word spatium for "space";

920-472: A deep dive were extensive. In addition to many biomedical studies, work-up dives were conducted at the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit at the Washington, D.C. , Navy Yard. These “dives” were not done in the open sea, but in a special hyperbaric chamber that could recreate the pressures at depths as great as 1,025 feet (312 m) of sea water. According to John Piña Craven , the U.S. Navy's head of

1012-403: A depth of 100 feet of seawater (fsw) in a 7% oxygen, 7% nitrogen, and 86% helium environment for 6 days. Light exercise and underwater swimming were performed periodically in the "wet pot" (a water-filled hyperbaric chamber ). Again the difficulty controlling their body temperature was a concern and the helium speech became worse at the greater environmental pressure. Bond returned the team to

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1104-463: A depth of 205 feet (62 m). On August 28, 1965, the first of three teams of divers moved into what became known as the "Tilton Hilton" (Tiltin' Hilton, because of the slope of the landing site). The support ship Berkone hovered on the surface above, within sight of Scripps Pier. The helium atmosphere conducted heat away from the divers’ bodies so quickly temperatures were raised to 30 °C (86 °F) to ward off chill. Each team spent 15 days in

1196-443: A poorly sized neoprene seal caused helium to leak from the habitat at an unacceptable rate, four divers volunteered to repair the leak in place rather than lifting the habitat to the surface. Their first attempt was unsuccessful, and the divers had been awake for twenty hours using amphetamines to stay alert for a second attempt, during which aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died. A U.S. Navy Board of Inquiry found that Cannon's rebreather

1288-625: A researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who flew on STS-9 in 1983. In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler and the first journalist in space for Tokyo Broadcasting System , a visit to Mir as part of an estimated $ 12 million (USD) deal with a Japanese TV station, although at the time, the term used to refer to Akiyama was "Research Cosmonaut". Akiyama suffered severe space sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity. The first self-funded space tourist

1380-663: A scooter accident on Bermuda and broke a few bones. The crash ruined his chances of making the dive. SEALAB I is on display at the Man in the Sea Museum , in Panama City Beach, Florida , near where it was initially tested offshore before being deployed. It is on outdoor display. Its metal hull is largely intact, though the paint faded to a brick red over the years. The habitat's exterior was restored as part of its 50th anniversary, and now sports its original colors. SEALAB II

1472-584: Is John Glenn , one of the Mercury 7 , who was 77 when he flew on STS-95 . The longest time spent in space was by Russian Valeri Polyakov , who spent 438 days there. As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz . The farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (249,205 mi), when Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert , and Fred Haise went around

1564-463: Is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft . Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists . "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or

1656-534: Is achieved, the amount of time needed for decompression depends only on the depth and gases breathed. This was the beginning of saturation diving and the US Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program. The first two phases of Project Genesis involved exposing animals to saturation in various breathing gases. In 1962, interest in helium-oxygen atmospheres for crewed space flights made Phase C possible. Phase C involved saturation of three subjects at one atmosphere (surface) in

1748-863: Is also where the Shuttle Training Aircraft is maintained and developed, although most flights of the aircraft are conducted from Edwards Air Force Base . Astronauts in training must learn how to control and fly the Space Shuttle; further, it is vital that they are familiar with the International Space Station so they know what they must do when they get there. The master's degree requirement can also be met by: Mission Specialist Educators , or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004; as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba , Richard R. Arnold , and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger . Barbara Morgan , selected as back-up teacher to Christa McAuliffe in 1985,

1840-436: Is anticipated that remote guided ultrasound will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations, where access to a trained physician is often rare. A 2006 Space Shuttle experiment found that Salmonella typhimurium , a bacterium that can cause food poisoning , became more virulent when cultivated in space. More recently, in 2017, bacteria were found to be more resistant to antibiotics and to thrive in

1932-522: Is called an astronaut . The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his 1930 short story "The Death's Head Meteor". The word itself had been known earlier; for example, in Percy Greg 's 1880 book Across the Zodiac , "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de l'infini (1925) by J.-H. Rosny aîné , the word astronautique ( astronautics )

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2024-644: Is considered to be the first Educator astronaut by the media, but she trained as a mission specialist. The Educator Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s. Astronauts are susceptible to a variety of health risks including decompression sickness , barotrauma , immunodeficiencies , loss of bone and muscle , loss of eyesight , orthostatic intolerance , sleep disturbances , and radiation injury. A variety of large scale medical studies are being conducted in space via

2116-771: Is still in use as a research facility today at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory . Following the success of the Genesis Project, Edwin Link initiated his Man-in-the-Sea dives followed shortly thereafter by Cousteau and his Conshelf experiments. "Papa Topside" Bond initiated and served as the Senior Medical Officer and principal investigator of the US Navy SEALAB program. SEALAB I

2208-460: Is strictly defined as the navigation of outer space within the local star system , i.e. Solar System . The phrase tàikōng rén ( 太空人 , "spaceman") is often used in Hong Kong and Taiwan . The term taikonaut is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China . The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, and

2300-635: The Deep Submergence Systems Project of which SEALAB was a part, SEALAB III "was plagued with strange failures at the very start of operations". USS Elk River (IX-509) was specially fitted as a SEALAB operations support ship to replace Berkone ; but the project was 18 months late and three million dollars over budget when SEALAB III was lowered to 610 feet (190 m) off San Clemente Island , California, on 15 February 1969. SEALAB team members were tense and frustrated by these delays, and began taking risks to make things work. When

2392-575: The International Space Station : The first NASA astronauts were selected for training in 1959. Early in the space program, military jet test piloting and engineering training were often cited as prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, although neither John Glenn nor Scott Carpenter (of the Mercury Seven ) had any university degree, in engineering or any other discipline at the time of their selection. Selection

2484-604: The Kármán line , at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi). In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometres (50 mi) are awarded astronaut wings . As of 17 November 2016 , 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km (62 mi) or more in altitude, of whom 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, either to lunar orbit,

2576-693: The Malay term angkasawan (deriving from angkasa meaning 'space') was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program (note its similarity with the Indonesian term antariksawan ). Plans of the Indian Space Research Organisation to launch its crewed Gaganyaan spacecraft have spurred at times public discussion if another term than astronaut should be used for the crew members, suggesting vyomanaut (from

2668-682: The National Association of Underwater Instructors . Bond's leadership helped establish the Man-In-The-Sea Museum in 1977 with a goal to preserve the history of undersea exploration. Bond died on January 3, 1983. He is buried in Bat Cave, North Carolina . Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek ἄστρον ( astron ), meaning 'star', and ναύτης ( nautes ), meaning 'sailor')

2760-846: The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to address these issues. Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study in which astronauts (including former ISS commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka ) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. This study's techniques are now being applied to cover professional and Olympic sports injuries as well as ultrasound performed by non-expert operators in medical and high school students. It

2852-474: The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and their foreign counterparts are all officially called hángtiānyuán ( 航天员 , meaning "heaven navigator" or literally " heaven-sailing staff"). Since 1961, 600 astronauts have flown in space. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of

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2944-724: The Sanskrit word vyoman meaning 'sky' or 'space') or gagannaut (from the Sanskrit word gagan for 'sky'). In Finland , the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra , a Finnish American , has sometimes been referred to as sisunautti , from the Finnish word sisu . Across Germanic languages, the word for "astronaut" typically translates to "space traveler", as it does with German's Raumfahrer , Dutch's ruimtevaarder , Swedish's rymdfarare , and Norwegian's romfarer . As of 2021 in

3036-611: The Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. On 30 May 2020, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first astronauts to launch on a private crewed spacecraft, Crew Dragon . The youngest person to reach space is Oliver Daemen , who was 18 years and 11 months old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-16 . Daemen, who was a commercial passenger aboard the New Shepard , broke the record of Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov , who

3128-572: The Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek κόσμος ). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin "tàikōng" ( 太空 ), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China,

3220-448: The habitat , but aquanaut / astronaut Scott Carpenter remained below for a record 30 days. In addition to physiological testing, the divers tested new tools, methods of salvage, and an electrically heated drysuit. One case of decompression sickness was treated by Dr. Bond. SEALAB III used a refurbished SEALAB II habitat, but was placed in water three times as deep. Five teams of nine divers were scheduled to spend 12 days each in

3312-498: The planet Mars , may substantially damage the gastrointestinal tissues of astronauts. The studies support earlier work that found such journeys could significantly damage the brains of astronauts, and age them prematurely. Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five Enterobacter bugandensis bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue assuring

3404-543: The " Vomit Comet ," the nickname given to a pair of modified KC-135s (retired in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and replaced in 2005 with a C-9 ) which perform parabolic flights. Astronauts are also required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft. This is mostly done in T-38 jet aircraft out of Ellington Field , due to its proximity to the Johnson Space Center . Ellington Field

3496-600: The "Father of Saturation Diving ". While serving as Officer-in-Charge at the Naval Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, Connecticut, he conducted his earliest experiments into saturation diving techniques. In 1957, Bond began the Genesis project to prove that humans could in fact withstand prolonged exposure to different breathing gases and increased environmental pressures. Once saturation

3588-546: The 100 kilometers (54 nautical miles) line, qualifying him by the international definition of spaceflight. Walker had joined the US Army Air Force but was not a member during his flight. The first people in space who had never been a member of any country's armed forces were both Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard Voskhod 1 . The first non-governmental space traveler was Byron K. Lichtenberg ,

3680-461: The Earth was John Glenn , aboard Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride , during Space Shuttle Challenger 's mission STS-7 , on 18 June 1983. In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space aboard STS-47 . Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA), (commonly called

3772-533: The European Space Agency envisioned recruiting an astronaut with a physical disability, a category they called "parastronauts", with the intention but not guarantee of spaceflight. The categories of disability considered for the program were individuals with lower limb deficiency (either through amputation or congenital), leg length difference, or a short stature (less than 130 centimetres or 4 feet 3 inches). On 23 November 2022, John McFall

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3864-412: The Genesis project proving that humans could in fact withstand prolonged exposure to different breathing gases and increased environmental pressures. Once saturation is achieved, the amount of time needed for decompression depends on the depth and gases breathed. This was the beginning of saturation diving and the US Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program. Genesis was conducted in phases. In 1957 and 1958,

3956-757: The Memorial Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina . In 1946, Bond established a rural medical practice in Bat Cave, North Carolina . Seeing a need in the community, Bond established the Valley Clinic and Hospital in 1948. Bond was recognized by the community as "Doctor of the Year" in 1953. The people of the area showed their affection towards Bond when he appeared on the national television show This Is Your Life on June 22, 1955. Bond entered active Navy service in 1953. Soon after he qualified as

4048-514: The Moon during the Apollo 13 emergency. The first civilian in space was Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 (she also became the first woman in space on that mission). Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force, which did not accept female pilots at that time. A month later, Joseph Albert Walker became the first American civilian in space when his X-15 Flight 90 crossed

4140-498: The Naval Medical Research Laboratory for the Phase E trials in 1963. The divers were John C. Bull, Jr., Robert A. Barth, and Sanders W. Manning. They were saturated for 12 days at 198 fsw breathing 3.9% oxygen, 6.5% nitrogen and 89.6% helium. The temperature and voice communications problems continued with communications with the surface being virtually impossible. A 27-hour linear ascent was made from saturation. The Genesis chamber

4232-455: The Russian kosmonavt, such as the Polish : kosmonauta (although Poles also used astronauta , and the two words are considered synonyms). Coinage of the term космонавт has been credited to Soviet aeronautics (or " cosmonautics ") pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974). The first cosmonaut was Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin , also the first person in space. He was part of

4324-607: The United States, astronaut status is conferred on a person depending on the authorizing agency: On July 20, 2021, the FAA issued an order redefining the eligibility criteria to be an astronaut in response to the private suborbital spaceflights of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson . The new criteria states that one must have "[d]emonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety" to qualify as an astronaut. This new definition excludes Bezos and Branson. The first human in space

4416-527: The call circulated for years among Navy divers before it was aired on National Public Radio in 1999. In 2002, a group of researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network boarded the MV ; Kellie Chouest and used a Scorpio ROV to find the site of the SEALAB habitat. This expedition was the first return to the site since

4508-592: The command barge. Eventually, a guard was posted on the decompression chamber and the men were recovered safely. A potentially unstable suspect was identified by the staff psychiatrist, but the culprit was never prosecuted. Craven suggests this may have been done to spare the Navy bad press so soon after the USS ; Pueblo  (AGER-2) incident. After reinvestigating Cannon's death, ocean engineer Kevin Hardy concluded in

4600-653: The first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37 . Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of Hispanic and black African descent to fly in space, and in 1983, Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly into space. In April 1985, Taylor Wang became the first ethnic Chinese person in space. The first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry (France), in 1985. In 1985, Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud became

4692-437: The first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and thus became the first "American cosmonaut". In Chinese, the term Yǔ háng yuán ( 宇航员 , "cosmos navigating personnel") is used for astronauts and cosmonauts in general, while hángtiān yuán ( 航天员 , "navigating celestial-heaven personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. Here, hángtiān ( 航天 , literally "heaven-navigating", or spaceflight )

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4784-551: The first Arab Muslim astronaut in space. In 1988, Abdul Ahad Mohmand became the first Afghan to reach space, spending nine days aboard the Mir space station. With the increase of seats on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. began taking international astronauts. In 1983, Ulf Merbold of West Germany became the first non-US citizen to fly in a US spacecraft. In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first of eight Canadian astronauts to fly in space (through 2010). In 1985, Rodolfo Neri Vela became

4876-418: The first Mexican-born person in space. In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space. In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space, as a paying spaceflight participant. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli to fly in space, although he died during a re-entry accident . On 15 October 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on

4968-485: The first SEALAB habitat. At the time, Jacques Cousteau and Edwin A. Link were pursuing privately funded saturation diving projects to study long-term underwater living. Link's efforts resulted in the first underwater habitat, occupied by aquanaut Robert Sténuit in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 61 m (200 ft) for one day on September 6, 1962. Cousteau's habitats included Conshelf I , with

5060-698: The first person in space twice. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5-man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks . As of 2024 , the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Oleg Kononenko , who has spent over 1100 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman, at 675 days. In 1959, when both the United States and Soviet Union were planning, but had yet to launch humans into space, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his Deputy Administrator, Hugh Dryden , discussed whether spacecraft crew members should be called astronauts or cosmonauts . Dryden preferred "cosmonaut", on

5152-507: The first six Soviet citizens, with German Titov , Yevgeny Khrunov , Andriyan Nikolayev , Pavel Popovich , and Grigoriy Nelyubov , who were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961. Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut and the first and youngest woman to have flown in space with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 in 1963. On 14 March 1995, Norman Thagard became

5244-401: The first two phases (A and B) involved exposing animals to saturation in various breathing gases. The experiments are summarized in the table below: Once the animal work was completed, Bond proposed offering "the opportunity for development of ecological systems which would permit man, as a free agent, to live and work to depths at 600 feet, and for periods in excess of 30 days." This proposal

5336-434: The grounds that flights would occur in and to the broader cosmos , while the "astro" prefix suggested flight specifically to the stars . Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred "astronaut", which survived by common usage as the preferred American term. When the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to "cosmonaut". A professional space traveler

5428-407: The habitat was moved. With naval research funding constrained by Vietnam War combat requirements, it was four years later before SEALAB III used the refurbished SEALAB II habitat placed in water three times deeper. Five teams of nine divers were scheduled to spend 12 days each in the habitat, testing new salvage techniques and conducting oceanographic and fishery studies. Preparations for such

5520-527: The habitat, but aquanaut/former astronaut Scott Carpenter remained below for a record 30 days. In addition to physiological testing, the 28 divers tested new tools, methods of salvage, and an electrically heated drysuit. They were aided by a bottlenose dolphin named Tuffy from the United States Navy Marine Mammal Program . Aquanauts and Navy trainers attempted, with mixed results, to teach Tuffy to ferry supplies from

5612-526: The habitat, testing new salvage techniques and conducting oceanographic and fishery studies. According to John Piña Craven , the U.S. Navy's head of the Deep Submergence Systems Project of which SEALAB was a part, SEALAB III "was plagued with strange failures at the very start of operations". On February 15, 1969, SEALAB III was lowered to 610 fsw (185 m), off San Clemente Island , California. The habitat soon began to leak and six divers were sent to repair it, but they were unsuccessful. Tragically, during

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5704-514: The lunar surface, or, in one case, a loop around the Moon . Three of the 24— Jim Lovell , John Young and Eugene Cernan —did so twice. As of 17 November 2016 , under the U.S. definition, 558 people qualify as having reached space, above 50 miles (80 km) altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles (80 km) in altitude, only one, Joseph A. Walker , exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62.1 miles) and he did it two times, becoming

5796-459: The near-weightlessness of space. Microorganisms have been observed to survive the vacuum of outer space. On 31 December 2012, a NASA -supported study reported that human spaceflight may harm the brain and accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease . In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to space exploration , including

5888-588: The notable exceptions of France and Austria participating in Soyuz TM-7 and Soyuz TM-13 , respectively. An example is Czechoslovak Vladimír Remek , the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States , who flew to space in 1978 on a Soyuz-U rocket. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space. He was launched aboard Soyuz T-11 , on 2 April 1984. On 23 July 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became

5980-572: The ocean surface indefinitely and accomplish a variety of tasks that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish by repeated dives from the surface." It was placed in the La Jolla Canyon off the coast of California , at a depth of 205 fsw. On August 28, 1965, the first of three teams of divers moved into what became known as the "Tilton Hilton" (Tiltin' Hilton, because of the slope of the landing site). Unlike SEALAB I, it also included hot showers and refrigeration . Each team spent 15 days in

6072-654: The open ocean was viable for extended periods. The experiment also offered information about habitat placement, habitat umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. SEALAB I was lowered off the coast of Bermuda on July 20, 1964 to a depth of 192 feet (59 m) below the ocean surface. It was constructed from two converted floats and held in place with axles from railroad cars . The experiment involved four divers (LCDR Robert Thompson , MC; Gunners Mate First Class Lester Anderson , Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth , and Chief Hospital Corpsman Sanders Manning ), who were to stay submerged for three weeks. The experiment

6164-564: The position and structure of the brain have been found in astronauts who have taken trips in space , based on MRI studies . Astronauts who took longer space trips were associated with greater brain changes. Being in space can be physiologically deconditioning on the body. It can affect the otolith organs and adaptive capabilities of the central nervous system . Zero gravity and cosmic rays can cause many implications for astronauts. In October 2018, NASA -funded researchers found that lengthy journeys into outer space , including travel to

6256-487: The privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut . The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, with some focus on the point where the atmosphere becomes so thin that centrifugal force , rather than aerodynamic force , carries a significant portion of the weight of the flight object. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed

6348-678: The second attempt, aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died, and the program came to a halt. George Foote Bond was born November 14, 1915, in Willoughby, Ohio , to Robert and Louise Foot Bond. Bond received a Bachelor and Master of Arts from the University of Florida in 1939. While a student at UF, he became a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. He then attended medical school at McGill University where he completed his medical training in surgery in 1945. Bond performed his internship at

6440-433: The second attempt, aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died. The SEALAB program came to a halt, and although the habitat was retrieved, it was eventually scrapped. Aspects of the research continued but no new habitats were built. Bond was decorated with a Navy Commendation Medal for "heroic, professional, and scientific achievement" while he was the Medical Officer for Submarine Squadron One from 1954 to 1956. The Legion of Merit

6532-405: The subjects showed no changes though difficulty controlling their body temperature as well as changes in their speech from the helium were noted. Phase D experiments were conducted at the United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit in 1963. The subjects for these trials were Robert A. Barth, Sanders W. Manning , and Raymond R. Lavois. The subjects performed the world's first saturation dive at

6624-565: The surface to SEALAB or from one diver to another, and to come to the rescue of an aquanaut in distress. When the SEALAB II mission ended on 10 October 1965, there were plans for Tuffy also to take part in SEALAB III. A sidenote from SEALAB II was a congratulatory telephone call that was arranged for Carpenter and President Lyndon B. Johnson . Carpenter was calling from a decompression chamber with helium gas replacing nitrogen , so Carpenter sounded unintelligible to operators. The tape of

6716-479: The surface. In addition to physiological testing, the divers tested new tools, methods of salvage, and an electrically heated drysuit. SEALAB III was placed in water three times as deep to test new salvage techniques and for oceanographic and fishery studies. On February 15, 1969, SEALAB III was lowered to 610 fsw (185 m), off San Clemente Island , California. The habitat soon began to leak and six divers were sent to repair it, but they were unsuccessful. During

6808-600: The term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps . By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its predecessor, the Soviet space program ) is called a cosmonaut in English texts. The word is an Anglicization of kosmonavt (Russian: космонавт Russian pronunciation: [kəsmɐˈnaft] ). Other countries of the former Eastern Bloc use variations of

6900-616: The term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese People's Daily since the advent of the Chinese space program. The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih ( 趙裡昱 ) from Malaysia used it in newsgroups . For its 2022 Astronaut Group ,

6992-487: Was Dennis Tito on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on 28 April 2001. The first person to fly on an entirely privately funded mission was Mike Melvill , piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a suborbital journey, although he was a test pilot employed by Scaled Composites and not an actual paying space tourist. Jared Isaacman was the first person to self-fund a mission to orbit, commanding Inspiration4 in 2021. Nine others have paid Space Adventures to fly to

7084-456: Was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2 . Titov remains the youngest human to reach orbit ; he rounded the planet 17 times. Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness and the first person to sleep in space, twice. The oldest person to reach space is William Shatner , who was 90 years old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-18 . The oldest person to reach orbit

7176-443: Was Soviet Yuri Gagarin , who was launched on 12 April 1961, aboard Vostok 1 and orbited around the Earth for 108 minutes. The first woman in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova , who launched on 16 June 1963, aboard Vostok 6 and orbited Earth for almost three days. Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on 5 May 1961, on a 15-minute sub-orbital flight aboard Freedom 7 . The first American to orbit

7268-447: Was a viable means for expanding our ability to live and work in the sea. The experiment also provided engineering solutions to habitat placement, habitat umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. SEALAB II was launched off the coast of California in 1965 to assess the feasibility of utilizing saturation techniques and tools to accomplish a variety of tasks that would be difficult or impossible to accomplish by repeated dives from

7360-421: Was awarded in 1960 for establishing the feasibility of deep submarine escape by locking out of a submarine at a depth of 302 fsw with two additional gold stars being earned for his work with SEALAB I (1964) and SEALAB II (1965). The US Navy dedicated the new Ocean Simulation Facility at the United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit in honor of Dr. Bond in 1974. Bond served on the first Board of Advisors for

7452-460: Was halted after 11 days due to an approaching tropical storm . SEALAB I proved that saturation diving in the open ocean was a viable means for expanding our ability to live and work in the sea. The experiment also provided engineering solutions to habitat placement, habitat umbilicals, humidity, and helium speech descrambling. SEALAB II was launched in 1965 to assess the feasibility of utilizing saturation techniques and tools "to remain deep beneath

7544-432: Was halted after 11 days due to an approaching tropical storm . SEALAB I demonstrated the same issues as Conshelf: high humidity, temperature control, and verbal communication in the helium atmosphere. The astronaut and second American to orbit the Earth, Scott Carpenter , was scheduled to be the fifth aquanaut in the habitat. Carpenter was trained by Robert A. Barth. Shortly before the experiment took place, Carpenter had

7636-550: Was initially limited to military pilots. The earliest astronauts for both the US and the USSR tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots. Once selected, NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extravehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory . Astronauts-in-training (astronaut candidates) may also experience short periods of weightlessness ( microgravity ) in an aircraft called

7728-519: Was launched in 1965. It was nearly twice as large as SEALAB I with heating coils installed in the deck to ward off the constant helium-induced chill, and air conditioning to reduce the oppressive humidity. Facilities included hot showers, a built-in toilet, laboratory equipment, eleven viewing ports, two exits, and refrigeration . It was placed in the La Jolla Canyon off the coast of Scripps Institution of Oceanography /UCSD, in La Jolla, California , at

7820-602: Was lowered off the coast of Bermuda in 1964 to a depth of 192 fsw below the sea's surface. It was constructed from two converted floats and held in place with axles from railroad cars . Bond and Captain Walter Mazzone inspected the habitat prior to the beginning of the project. The experiment involved four divers (LCDR Robert Thompson , MC; Gunners Mate First Class Lester Anderson , Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth , and Chief Hospital Corpsman Sanders Manning), who were to stay submerged for three weeks. The experiment

7912-404: Was made from saturation. "Papa Topside" Bond initiated and served as the Senior Medical Officer and principal investigator of the US Navy SEALAB program. SEALAB I was lowered off the coast of Bermuda in 1964 to a depth of 192 fsw below the sea's surface. The experiment was halted after 11 days due to an approaching tropical storm . SEALAB I proved that saturation diving in the open ocean

8004-456: Was missing baralyme , the chemical necessary to remove carbon dioxide . Surgeon commander John Rawlins , a Royal Navy medical officer assigned to the project, also suggested that hypothermia during the dive was a contributing factor to the problem not being recognized by the diver. According to Craven, while the other divers were undergoing the week-long decompression , repeated attempts were made to sabotage their air supply by someone aboard

8096-542: Was rejected but in 1962, interest in helium-oxygen atmospheres for crewed space flights made Phase C possible. Fred Korth was the Secretary of the Navy in 1962 and authorized Phase C involving saturation of three subjects at one atmosphere (surface) in a 21.6% oxygen, 4% nitrogen, and 74.4% helium environment for six days. The divers for this trial were Lieutenants John C. Bull, Jr., Albert P. Fisher, Jr., and Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth . Physiologically,

8188-488: Was responsible for the handling of several contracts involving life support systems used on SEALAB III. A model of SEALAB III can be found at the Man in the Sea Museum in Panama City Beach, Florida . George F. Bond Captain George Foote Bond (November 14, 1915 – January 3, 1983) was a United States Navy physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine and

8280-468: Was selected to be the first ESA parastronaut. With the rise of space tourism , NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term " spaceflight participant " to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. While no nation other than Russia (and previously the Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched

8372-515: Was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950, and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps . The European Space Agency similarly uses

8464-543: Was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied in 1784 to balloonists . An early use of "astronaut" in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell 's poem "The Astronaut", appearing in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society . The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community

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