10 INTENSE Astronaut Space Stories
Becoming an astronaut is one of the coolest jobs one can have,
and some of these astronauts have intense stories to tell us. In this video, we’ll be taking a look
at some of the most notable astronauts in history, and their stories, so let’s begin:
10. Sally Ride - The First American Woman In Space
Sally Ride is one of the most iconic American women in history. Born in Los Angeles in 1951,
she applied to be an astronaut for NASA Astronaut Group 8, which was NASA’s first class to accept
women. She beat out 8000 other applicants to become one of the 35 people selected for the
class. She ended up being quite a valuable asset to NASA after she helped develop the “Canadarm”
robot on the space shuttle. In 1983, she was selected by NASA to be one of the astronauts to go
on the STS-7 mission to space, and on June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman
to go into space. Sally Ride became an American feminist hero, and upon her death from pancreatic
cancer in 2012, we got to know that she was in a relationship with a female tennis player named
Tam O'Shaughnessy for over 20 years, which also makes her the first LGBT person in space.
9. Valentina Tereshkova - The First Woman In Space
Sally Ride was only the first American woman in space, not the first woman in space overall. That
title goes to a woman named Valentina Tereshkova. Valentina Tereshkova was born in a small village
in Russia, back when it was a part of the Soviet Union. She didn’t even go to school until the age
of 10, and only studied until she was 17. When she was young, she showed a keen interest in skydiving
and joined various skydiving clubs. The Soviet Union and the US were in the midst of a space race
at the time, and when Nikolai Kamanin, director of cosmonaut training found out that women in
America were being trained to become astronauts, he said "We cannot allow that the first woman in
space will be American. This would be an insult to the patriotic feelings of Soviet women."
Because of her experience in skydiving, she was eventually chosen as one of the 5 women
who would enter cosmonaut training. After some intense training, on 16 June 1963,
she went on a solo mission to space on the Vostok 6 spacecraft, becoming the first woman to do so.
8. Christa McAuliffe - The First Civilian In Space
For most of history, becoming an astronaut was a very exclusive job and only those with some sort
of prior flying or airforce training were even considered to become candidates to fly into space.
However, in 1985, NASA launched their Teacher in Space project, where they would launch the first
teacher and the first civilian overall into space. Christa McAuliffe was the one teacher chosen out
of over 11,000 applicants, and she was set to make history for NASA and for space travel in general.
However, things didn’t go as planned. The Space Shuttle Challenger that she was onboard would
end up malfunctioning at launch and would go crashing down, killing all 7 crew members,
including Christa McAuliffe while millions watched the incident live on television.
While she did make history, it ended up being in a more tragic way than any of us could imagine.
7. Jim Lovell Jack Swigert & Fred Haise - Apollo 13
Apollo 13 is one of the most famous failed space missions in history,
but the three astronauts involved in the mission were anything but failures. When the Apollo 13 LEM
spacecraft’s oxygen tank burst, they were forced to turn off almost all electronic functions of the
spacecraft, including the heating, so they could save power to come back to the earth in time.
Once the heating was off, they were experiencing temperatures colder than anyone on earth could
even imagine, and they had to spend over 24 hours in such freezing temperatures.
Despite all the challenges, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert & Fred Haise defied all odds
and made it back to the earth unharmed. These three men are real-life superhumans.
6. Mae Jemison - The First African American Woman In Space
African American history is filled with suffering and setbacks, and during the late 20th century,
many measures were taken to integrate African Americans after the era of Jim Crow laws and
segregation, since society had become too unequal. The first African American woman to
break the glass ceiling when it came to space was Mae Jemison. She came from a working-class family
in Decatur, Alabama, and recalled being interested in science from a young age, but put off by the
lack of female astronauts in the Apollo missions to space. She got into Stanford at the age of 16,
went on to become a medical doctor, and then decided she wanted to go to space and privately
took engineering courses. She beat out 2,000 candidates to join NASA’s Astronaut Group 12,
and on September 12, 1992, she became the first African American woman to enter space.
5. Chris Hadfield - First Canadian To Walk In Space
Chris Hadfield was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada in 1959. He was raised on a corn farm
and his first introduction to space travel was when he saw the Apollo 11 moon landing live on TV.
He ended up joining the Canadian Air Force, which gave him enough flying experience to be eligible
to apply for NASA’s astronaut program, having flown over 70 different types of aircraft by 1992.
He was selected as one of just 4 Canadian astronauts to go to NASA out of a pool of
over 5000 candidates. He first went into space in 1995 on the STS-74 mission as a flight specialist.
His second trip to space on the STS-100 mission would be his most remembered,
when he took two spacewalks for a total of 14 hours and 50 minutes,
going around the world 10 times. During his first spacewalk, he was even temporarily blinded due to
the anti-fog solution he used, but thankfully, he recovered and was ready for a second one!
4. Kalpana Chawla - First Indian Woman In Space
Kalpana Chawla was born in the small town of Karnal in the Haryana state of India.
As a child, she was always fascinated by flying and was an avid plane watcher. Due to her love of
planes, she studied Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College and later moved to the
US to study her Masters in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas in Arlington.,
and later earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado.
She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1991 and applied for NASA’s Astronaut Corps and got in,
beating out thousands of candidates. On November 19, 1997, Kalpana became the first Indian woman
to go into space on board Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. She made a historic second flight
to space in 2003, however, this time it ended in tragedy. Space Shuttle Columbia
immediately disintegrated upon reentry, killing her and 6 other crew members.
3. Alan B. Shepard - The First American In Space
The beginnings of the space race are often considered some of the most tense moments
in the greater Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Both superpowers were working tirelessly to advance their space programs, and when the
Soviets sent the first spacecraft into space, the Americans had to send the first man into space.
Alan Shepard was a naval aviator who was chosen as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven,
and he was eventually chosen by NASA to be the man who would win them the space race
after intense competition from other members of the Mercury Seven.
His launch was initially set to happen on April 26, 1960, however, it faced delay after delay
and on April 12, 1961, it was announced that the Soviet Union had launched a man into space.
Shepard was so angry at the news that he slammed his fist on the desk so hard that other people
around him feared he might have broken his hand. Nonetheless, on May 5, 1961, Alan became the
first American, and the second man overall, to travel to space on the Freedom 7 capsule.
2. The First Men To Walk On The Moon
On July 24, 1969, history was made, and, for many people, the space race was officially concluded
as Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two men in history to walk on
the moon during the Apollo 11 mission where Michael Collins was the spacecraft pilot.
All three men had prior experience in space, which was rare for NASA projects at the time,
and the Apollo 11 mission, overall, was considered a top priority for the U.S President,
John F Kennedy, who was dismayed by the lack of American gains in the space race.
The rest was history, Armstrong and Aldrin took quite a few pictures in space,
most of them were of Aldrin since Amstrong held the camera most of the time. It’s important
to note the role Collins played in this, as without him, it wouldn’t be possible at all.
1. Yuri Gagarin - The First Man In Space
“Who won the space race” is actually quite a difficult question to answer.
While the moon landing may have been an incredible conclusion,
many people believe that the Soviets won the space race from the very beginning,
and that’s because they put the very first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. Yuri was born in a
small village in Russia and grew up quite poor. His native village of Klushino was devastated
by German forces during World War 2 when he was a child and in 1946, after the end of the war,
he and his family moved to the town of Gzhatsk so he could continue his education. He ended up
joining the Soviet Airforce in 1955 at the age of 21 and became quite an experienced pilot.
He showed an interest in space exploration and asked a Lieutenant Colonel to recommend him to
the Soviet Space Programme, which he did. He was eventually chosen for the Vostok Programme,
where he was one of the few people ever to receive training to go into space. He eventually beat out
all competition and was chosen as the man who would first go into space and on 12 April 1961,
he made history when he traveled to space in the Vostok 1 spacecraft. He became a national hero and
a worldwide celebrity, and it all started from a small, poor, wartorn village in the Soviet Union.
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