They thrilled us with their feats of daring in orbit and on the Moon… but who among them is first among equals?
For the past five decades, astronauts have thrilled the world. From Yuri Gagarin’s history-making first ascent into orbit to the Space Shuttle’s extraordinary Hubble Telescope repair missions, human explorers have clocked up countless major accomplishments in space. But who among them is the greatest? Narrowing it down to just 15 was no easy task. In the process, we had to ignore simple ‘firsts’, like John Glenn being the first American to orbit the Earth, or Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman aloft. Instead we went for astronauts whose achievements were extraordinary, or whose bravery saved themselves or their colleagues when things went wrong. And now - it’s over to you. Which of the following 15 astronauts do you think is the greatest of all time? For the full article on the greatest astronauts, read the August issue of Sky at Night Magazine – out on 20 July
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1) Anousheh Ansari
Organised first X Prize and became the first female space tourist. |
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2) Buzz Aldrin
The second man on the Moon also invented handles for space walks. |
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3) Neil Armstrong
First man on the Moon and cool under pressure – in space and in training. |
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4) Frank Borman
Flew on Apollo 8 and played a key role in keeping the dream alive after the Apollo 1 tragedy. |
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5) Michael Foale
British-born Foale helped to save space station Mir and was a great ambassador. |
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6) Yuri Gagarin
To be first man in space took a brave man indeed, and Gagarin flew the flat for the Soviet Union. |
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7) Sergei Krikalev
On board Mir, he spent more time in space (803 days) than anyone else, despite supplies being interrupted. |
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8) Jim Lovell
A veteran of the pre-Apollo Gemini programme, Lovell brought the stricken Apollo 13 back to Earth. |
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9) Alexei Leonov
He made the first spacewalk and commanded Soyuz when it docked with Apollo in 1975. |
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10) Bruce McCandless
The Shuttle astronaut made the first untethered spacewalk using a propulsion backback. |
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11) Valeri Polyakov
The Mir astronaut achieved the ultimate in endurance – 437 unbroken days in space. |
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12) Story Musgrave
Helped to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope and the only person to fly all five Shuttles. |
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13) Harrison Schmitt
The only scientist among the Moon walkers, Schmitt set the bar for scientist-astronauts to come. |
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14) Alan Shepard
Risked unreliable early rockets to became the first American in space and flew to the Moon with Apollo 14. |
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15) John Young
The ultimate pilot-astronaut, he flew every craft except Mercury and worked hard on the ground. |
Voting is now closed.
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