Roberta Lynn Bondar is a Canadian astronaut, neurologist and consultant. She is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.
Zond 3 was a 1965 space probe which performed a flyby of the Moon's far side, taking 28 quality photographs. It was a member of the Soviet Zond program while also being part of the Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for crewed circumlunar missions. It is believed that Zond 3 was initially designed as a companion spacecraft to Zond 2 to be launched to Mars during the 1964 launch window. The opportunity to launch was missed, and the spacecraft was launched on a Mars-crossing trajectory as a spacecraft test, even though Mars was no longer attainable.
Peggy Annette Whitson is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of 675 days in space, more than any other American or woman.
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.
Donn Fulton Eisele was a United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and later a NASA astronaut. He served as command module pilot for the Apollo 7 mission in 1968. After retiring from both NASA and the Air Force in 1972, he became the Peace Corps country director for Thailand, before moving into private business.
Geraldyn M. Cobb , commonly known as Jerrie Cobb, was an American pilot and aviator. She was also part of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent physiological screening tests at the same time as the original Mercury Seven astronauts, and was the first to complete each of the tests.
Otto C. Winzen (1917–1979) was a German-American aeronautics engineer who made significant advances in the materials and construction of high-altitude balloons after World War II.
The Mercury 13 were thirteen American women who took part in a privately funded research program run by physician William Randolph Lovelace II in 1959-1960 a private contractor to NASA, which aimed to test and screen women for spaceflight. The first participant, pilot Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb helped Lovelace identify and recruit the others. The participants successfully underwent the same physiological screening tests as had the astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury. While Lovelace called the project Woman in Space Program, the thirteen women decades later became known as the "Mercury 13"— a term coined in 1995 as a comparison to the Mercury Seven astronauts. The Mercury 13 women were not allowed in NASA's official astronaut program, and at the time, never trained as a group, nor flew in space.
The conditions governing sex in space have become a necessary study due to plans for long-duration space missions, as well as the future potential accommodation of sexual partners aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Issues explored include disrupted circadian rhythms, radiation, isolation, stress, and the physical acts of intercourse in zero or minimal gravity.
Opel-RAK were a series of rocket vehicles produced by German automobile manufacturer Fritz von Opel, of the Opel car company, in association with others, including Max Valier, Julius Hatry, and Friedrich Wilhelm Sander. Opel RAK is generally considered the world's first large-scale rocket program, significantly advancing rocket and aviation technology as well as instrumental in popularizing rockets as means of propulsion. In addition Opel RAK demonstrations were also highly successful as publicity stunts for the Opel car company. The Lippisch Ente, the world's first rocket-powered glider and piloted for its first flight on June 11, 1928, by Fritz Stamer at Wasserkuppe, was bought and operated by Opel in context of the Opel RAK program but is not formally designated an Opel RAK series number. Also a rocket-powered RAK-Motoclub motorbike, based on a conventional Opel Motoclub 500 SS and presented at the Berlin Motorshow 1928, did not receive a formal RAK number.
Macarthur Astronomy Forum is a monthly public forum organised by Macarthur Astronomical Society, providing leading national and international professional astronomers with a platform to address the Forum on topics of astronomical interest; also providing members of the Society and the general public with opportunities to learn and ask questions.
Women have flown and worked in outer space since almost the beginning of human spaceflight. A considerable number of women from a range of countries have worked in space, though overall women are still significantly less often chosen to go to space than men, and by June, 2020 constitute only 12% of all astronauts who have been to space. Yet, the proportion of women among space travelers is increasing substantially over time. The first woman to fly in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, aboard the Vostok 6 space capsule on June 16–19, 1963. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker, rather than a pilot like the male cosmonauts flying at the time, chosen for propaganda value, her devotion to the Communist Party, and her years of experience in sport parachuting, which she used on landing after ejecting from her capsule. Women were not qualified as space pilots and workers co-equal to their male counterparts until 1982. By October 2021, most of the 70 women who have been to space have been United States citizens, with missions on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station. Other countries have flown one, two or three women in human spaceflight programs. Additionally one woman of dual Iranian-US citizenship has participated as a tourist on a US spaceflight.
Rubber room is the nickname given to the emergency egress bunkers located 40 feet (12 m) beneath the launch pads at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39; there is one below each of the two pads. Built in the 1960s for the Apollo program, they were intended to provide a safe refuge for personnel on the launch pad in the event of an imminent explosion of the rocket, when a rapid egress of the pad is required and the normal evacuation methods would take too long. The bunker was designed to withstand the explosion of a fully fueled Saturn V rocket on the pad above, and could support up to 20 people for 24 hours.
Wanderers is a 2014 Swedish science fiction short film created by the digital artist and animator Erik Wernquist. The film depicts actual locations in the Solar System being investigated by human explorers, aided by hypothetical space technology. Of the film's fifteen scenes, Wernquist created some using solely computer graphics, but most are based on actual photographs taken by robotic spacecraft or rovers combined with additional computer-generated elements.
Sian Hayley "Leo" Proctor is an American commercial astronaut, geology professor, artist, author, and science communicator. She became the first female commercial spaceship pilot and the first artist selected to go to be an astronaut on the all-civilian Inspiration4 orbital spaceflight, 15 September 2021. As pilot of the Inspiration4's SpaceX Crew Dragon space capsule, Proctor became the first African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft. She was also the education outreach officer for the first Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission. In 2024, Proctor was selected to be a U.S. Science Envoy for the United States Department of State.
Gemini SC-2 was the second NASA Project Gemini full-up reentry capsule built. This McDonnell Gemini capsule was the first space capsule to be reused, flying twice in suborbital flights. SC-2 flew on Gemini 2 and OPS 0855 flights. The capsule is currently on display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Scott Park Manley is a Scottish science communication YouTuber, gamer, astrophysicist, and programmer. On his YouTube channel, he makes videos discussing space-related topics and news, mainly concerning up-to-date rocket science developments. He also plays space-themed video games, most notably Kerbal Space Program, while using his physics background to teach science concepts.
Timothy Justin Dodd, also known as Everyday Astronaut, is an American science communicator, YouTube content creator, photographer, and musician. After becoming popular with his space-themed photo series, Dodd was hired by the website Spaceflight Now to photograph SpaceX's CRS-3 cargo mission to the International Space Station on April 18, 2014, NASA's Orion Test Flight EFT-1 on December 5, 2014, the United States Air Force's GPS 2F-9 launch, and NASA's OA-6 Mission on March 23, 2016.
Crew Dragon Endeavour is the first operational Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft manufactured and operated by SpaceX. The spacecraft is named after Space ShuttleEndeavour. It first launched on 30 May 2020 to the International Space Station (ISS) on the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission. It has subsequently been used for the SpaceX Crew-2 mission that launched in April 2021, the private Axiom Mission 1 that launched in April 2022, the SpaceX Crew-6 mission that launched in March 2023, and the SpaceX Crew-8 mission from early March 2024 to late October 2024. As of November 2024, Endeavour holds the single-mission record for the most time in orbit by an American crewed spacecraft at 235 days.
Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight is a nonfiction book by Amy Shira Teitel published in 2020.
