What is an astronaut?

The word comes from the Greek, astron, meaning 'star' and nautes, meaning 'sailor'. Astronauts are the men and women who pilot, navigate and fly in spacecraft. Russian 'star-sailors' are called cosmonauts,
kosmos being the Greek for 'universe'. The first space flight was made in 1961 by the Russian, Yuri Gagarin. It lasted just over 89 minutes. The first woman in space was also Russian, Valentina Tereshkova. In 1963, her flight lasted almost 3 days. The first 'space walk' was made by another Russian, Aleksei Leonov, in 1965, though he was still tethered by a line to his spacecraft. It was nineteen years later, in 1984, that the American Bruce McCandless made the first, independent excursion in space. The oldest of all the space travellers so far is the American Karl Henize, who was fifty¬-eight during his flight in 1985.

Astronauts have to undergo extensive training before they are allowed into space. As there is no gravity in space they have to become accustomed to the sensation of weightlessness and to learn how to walk and to eat and drink when their food could be floating along in front of them. Some people who have wanted to become astronauts have been unable to do so because weightlessness has made them ill.