Lists of fictional astronauts | ||
---|---|---|
Early period | Project Mercury | Project Gemini |
Project Apollo | 1975–1989 | 1990–1999 |
2000–2009 | 2010–2029 | Moon |
Inner Solar System | Outer Solar System | Other |
Far future |
The following is a list of fictional astronauts from the era of Project Gemini and the Voskhod programme, during the early "Golden Age" of space travel.
Name(s) | Appeared in | Program / Mission / Spacecraft | Fictional date | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gemini (1964–1966) | ||||||
Dan Cooper, Capt. (RCAF) Nadia Kalinskaya, Lt. (Soviet Air Force) Jacques Souris, Lt. (French Air Force) Sonya Gombinski, Capt. (Polish Air Force) | SOS dans l'espace, Trois Cosmonautes, Apollo appelle Soyouz and other Tintin magazine stories (1957–69), comics | Gemini XIII and others | Contemporary | |||
Comic book series by Albert Weinberg. Cooper, Souris and Kalinskaya all complete solo spaceflights in Trois Cosmonautes. Kalinskaya and Gombinski (Poland's first cosmonaut) make an all-female Soyuz flight in Apollo appelle Soyouz. | ||||||
Walter Frisbee | N/A (Early 1960s) | Gemini | Contemporary | |||
Fictitious tenth member of NASA Astronaut Group 2 invented by Pete Conrad and Jim Lovell as a prank on reporters. Frisbee, son of a Romanian nobleman, spent his time undergoing secret training. [1] [2] | ||||||
James Holt (Pilot) William Swanberg (Electronician) | "Third Stage" (1962), short story | United States: Aeolus rocket | Near Future (after 1963) | |||
Astronauts on mission into Van Allen belt to test radiation screen are stranded in orbit. Three-stage Aeolus rocket is launched from Cape Canaveral. [3] [4] [5] | ||||||
Mercury 7: Richard J. Pruett, Maj. (USAF) Gemini: Jim Dougherty (USAF) Vostok IX: Andrei Yakovlev, Col. | Marooned (1964), novel | Mercury 7 (Mercury) Gemini (Gemini) Vostok IX (Vostok) | July 1964 | |||
NASA astronaut on 7th Mercury flight (MA-10) trapped in orbit due to no retrofire; boilerplate Gemini (GT-2) launched to rescue; Russian cosmonaut also rendezvous. Novel also mentions docking of Vostok VII and VIII and names GT-3 crew as Shepard and Masters. | ||||||
Paradowsky, Col. Borovin, Maj. Franco Ciccio | 002 Operazione Luna (1965), film | Voskhod? | Contemporary | |||
When cosmonauts Paradowsky and Borovin disappear in space, Italian criminals Franco and Ciccio, their doubles, are kidnapped and launched into space to cover up the mission's apparent failure. [6] | ||||||
Henry Olsen (Pilot) | "Una cuerda de nylon y oro" (aka "A Cord Made of Nylon and Gold") (1965), short story | Gemini (Gemini 5?) | August 1965 – Near Future | |||
Astronaut deliberately cuts himself loose from Gemini spacecraft commanded by James McDivitt, then witnesses nuclear holocaust on Earth from orbit. [7] | ||||||
Igor Ivan | Gilligan's Island Nyet, Nyet, Not Yet (1965), TV | Voskhod? | Contemporary | |||
Cosmonauts who land on Gilligan's isle. [8] | ||||||
NASA: Stardust I: Anthony Nelson, Capt./Maj. (USAF) Roger Healey, Capt./Maj. Leslie "Les" Wingate, Cmdr. (Command Pilot/LMP) Pete Conway, Lt. (USNR) Cortwright (no first name given) Rich Ross, Cmdr. Biff "Jetstream" Jellico, Maj. (USAF) USSR: Sonya Tiomkin, Maj. Posnovsky, Maj. Gregorian, Maj. | I Dream of Jeannie (1965–70), TV | Stardust I, Gemini, Project Alpha, Apollo | Contemporary | |||
Career NASA astronauts. Nelson, Healey and Wingate orbit the Moon on Apollo 14 in the episode "Around the World in 80 Blinks" (1969) [9] and are in quarantine after Moon mission in "The Solid Gold Jeannie" (1970). Other astronauts and cosmonauts appear in the episodes "The Lady in the Bottle" (1965), "Jeannie and the Marriage Caper" (1965), "Russian Roulette" (1965), "Tomorrow Is Not Another Day" (1968), "My Sister, the Home Wrecker" (1969) and "Never Put a Genie on a Budget" (1969). [10] [11] | ||||||
Frank Douglas | Monster a Go-Go (a.k.a. Terror at Halfday) (1965), film | United States: Space Agency (two-man capsule) | Contemporary | |||
Astronaut Douglas is seemingly transformed into radioactive monster. [12] [13] | ||||||
Unnamed astronaut | The Avengers Man-Eater of Surrey Green (1966), TV | Unknown; one-man capsule | Contemporary | |||
British astronaut dies in orbit; capsule re-enters following collision with giant alien plant. [14] [15] | ||||||
Zeus IV: Glyn Williams, Col. Dan "Bluey" Schultz, Maj. Zeus V: Terry Cutler, Lt. | Doctor Who The Tenth Planet (1966), TV (1976 novel) | International Space Command (ISC): Zeus IV Zeus V | December 1986 (2000 in novel) | |||
On a routine atmospheric survey mission, the orbit of Zeus IV is disrupted by the gravitational pull of the planet Mondas as it passes close to Earth. Zeus V attempts a rescue. [16] [17] [18] | ||||||
Mac MacKenzie, Capt. Hector "Hec" Canfield, Lt. | It's About Time (1966–67), TV | NASA: Scorpio | Contemporary | |||
Sitcom about astronauts who travel back in time and meet caveman family. [19] | ||||||
Gregory Schuster, Maj. Wayne Morris, Maj. Neil Danvers-Marshal, Prof. | Skyprobe (1966), novel | Unknown, Skyprobe IV | Near future | |||
Astronauts sent on a record-breaking, high Earth orbit mission. [20] | ||||||
Jennings, Maj. (Pilot) (no first name given) Bob Wyart (Co-Pilot) | "Under the Wide and Starry Sky..." (1966), short story | Gemini, GT-9 | Contemporary | |||
Fictional Gemini IX crew who find themselves in serious trouble during the last hours of their two-week mission. Plot-line apparently based on the original Gemini IX flight plan. [21] | ||||||
Scorpio 6: Sol Tobias (Command Pilot) Ryan (Pilot) (no first name given) | Gilligan's Island Splashdown (1967), TV | Scorpio 6 Scorpio E-X-1 | Contemporary | |||
NASA astronauts on mission to rendezvous with unmanned Scorpio E-X-1 capsule and transfer Tobias to it. [22] | ||||||
Voskhod: Lev Alexandrovich Barkagan Igil Postovoiit Nikolai Lermontov Gemini XIII: Rance Allenby, Col. (USAF) (Command Pilot) Gene Stanley (USN) (Pilot) | No Man's World (1967), novel | Voskhod Gemini XIII | Late 1964 1960s | |||
Voskhod cosmonauts' three-day mission in Earth orbit is followed by twenty-seven day stay in vacuum chamber simulating lunar surface. Barkagan was one of the second group of cosmonauts, chosen in 1961. Final Gemini mission (Agena rendezvous and docking, simulating Apollo CSM/LM docking) nearly ends in disaster after meteor strike. Allenby was one of a 16-man astronaut group chosen in 1964. [23] | ||||||
Jupiter XVI: Chris (last name not given) Unnamed US astronaut Voskhod (?): Two unnamed cosmonauts Bird 1: Two unnamed Osato astronauts Jupiter XVII: Two unnamed US astronauts | You Only Live Twice (1967), film | Jupiter XVI (Gemini) Unnamed Soviet capsule (Voskhod?) Bird 1 (reusable capsule) Jupiter XVII (Gemini) | Contemporary | |||
Presumed NASA and Soviet Union crews captured by Osato Chemicals (SPECTRE) spacecraft. Bird 1 uses expendable booster for launch; capsule capable of vertical pin-point landing like DC-X. Chris killed at capture due to EVA. Cosmonauts captured next. Capture of Jupiter XVII and probable outbreak of World War III prevented by James Bond. [24] [25] | ||||||
Voskhod 3: Vladimir Kostrov, Maj. Andrei Subbotin, Maj. Aurora 1: Vladimir Kostrov, Maj. Sergei Nofikov, Capt. Zhenia Svetlova, Sen. Lt. Dawn 1: Andrei Gorolev, Capt. | Cosmonauts on the Earth (Космонавты живут на Земле) (1968), Russian-language novel | Voskhod 3 (Voskhod) Aurora 1 (Soyuz) Dawn 1 (Zond) | Contemporary | |||
Semi-fictional work follows the lives and missions of nine cosmonauts recruited to fly the space missions which follow Vostok and Voskhod in period 1965–67. Seven ex-Soviet Air Force Pilots and two female champion skydivers train to fly on the next generation of Soviet rockets. "Aurora" and "Dawn" are analogous to Soyuz and Zond spacecraft of the real Soviet programme. Capt. Gorelov becomes the first man to fly around the Moon, while Sen. Lt. Svetlova replaces her close friend Marina Berzhenkova in the "Aurora" capsule at the last moment to become the first woman to make a spacewalk. [26] | ||||||
Gemini: Stubby Dolan MOL: Michael Stevens Harder George Ormsbee | Four Came Back (1968), novel | NASA: Gemini United States Air Force: Gemini-B/Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) | 1960s Late 1970 | |||
Dolan flew Agena rendezvous on late Gemini mission; Harder and Ormsbee flew first MOL mission. Harder previously flew X-15 into space. [27] | ||||||
Bill Stevens [lower-alpha 1] Gemini XII-A Prime Crew: Stephen Pitt, Lt. Cmdr. [lower-alpha 2] (USN) Robert "Roberto" Gauss, Dr. [lower-alpha 3] Backup crew: Lewis Hammill, Maj. (USAF) Daniel Golding, Capt. (USMC) Voskhod: Two unnamed cosmonauts | Death of a Cosmonaut (aka Autopsy for a Cosmonaut) (1969), novel | Gemini XII-A Voskhod | September 1966 – June 1967 | |||
Crew of a Gemini mission which makes a clandestine rendezvous with a failed Voskhod to carry out an autopsy of the cosmonauts. [28] | ||||||
Charles "Hickory" Lee, Maj. (US Army) Timothy Bell Harry Jensen, Capt. (USAF) Edward Cater, Maj. (USAF) Gemini XIII: Randolph Claggett, Maj. (USMC) (Command Pilot) John Pope, Cmdr. (USN) (Pilot) Apollo 18: Randy Claggett (CDR) John Pope (CMP) Paul Linley (LMP) | Space (1982), novel; James A. Michener's Space (1985), TV | Gemini XIII Apollo 18 Altair (CSM)/Luna (LM) | 1960s – 1970s | |||
NASA astronauts in James Michener's fictionalized account of the early years of the space program and the TV miniseries made from it. [29] [30] | ||||||
Alexander Alexandrovich "Sasha" Oryolin, Col. (Pilot) Konstantine K. "Kostya" Strogolshikov, Col. | Peter Nevsky and the True Story of the Russian Moon Landing (1993), novel | Voskhod 2 | 1965 | |||
First spacewalk mission, similar to the real Voskhod 2; cosmonauts survive crash landing in Ural Mountains. [31] | ||||||
Marcus Aurelius Belt, Lt. Col. | The X-Files Space (1993), TV | Gemini VIII | November or December 1993 (flashback to c. 1966) | |||
Former NASA astronaut who is possessed by a creature from outer space. [32] [33] | ||||||
Gary "Gator" Augatreux (USAF) (Commander) Ty Yount, Maj. (USAF) Unnamed backup | Dark Skies Mercury Rising (1996), TV | Midnight Wing: Gemini (prototype) Saturn | October 21, 1962 January 30 – February 2, 1964 | |||
Astronauts on black ops missions for US military. Augatreux and Yount experience missing time while intercepting alien spacecraft on October 1962 mission launched into polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base. February 1964 mission relays data from Ranger 6. | ||||||
Vladimir Pavlovich Viktorenko Unnamed cosmonaut | Voyage (1996), novel | Voskhod 3 | 1966 (Alternate History) | |||
First flight of alternate history cosmonaut Viktorenko, who later takes part in Moonlab/Soyuz mission. [34] | ||||||
Carl Ackland, Maj. (Command Pilot) Adam Banton, Maj. (Pilot) | Airlock, or How to Say Goodbye in Space (2007), short film | NASA: Gemini | December 24, 1976 | |||
Astronauts facing death in space. [35] [36] [37] | ||||||
Voskhod 4: Fabiano Dmietrivich Damianov, Maj. Larissa Timofyevna Damianova, Capt. | Voskhod 4 (2010), novella | Voskhod 4 (Voskhod) | 1965 | |||
Cosmonauts launched on a 14-day Voskhod mission in 1965 are believed lost when their launch vehicle explodes high above Siberia. [38] | ||||||
Dmitri Selonovich | Doctor Who "Space Oddity" (2013), comic strip | Vostok 11 (Vostok) | 1965 | |||
Cosmonaut killed by Vashta Nerada while making first human spacewalk on classified military mission. [39] | ||||||
USSR: Vasily (no last name given) L3: Raisa Zaslavskaya Unnamed copilot (Soviet Air Force) Gemini 17: Malachi "Mal" Washington (USN) Vic Hemshaw (Copilot) | "Gemini XVII" (2013), novelette | Soviet Union: L3 (launched with N1 booster) NASA: Gemini 17 (Advanced Gemini) | c. December 1968 (Alternate History) / c. 1978 (Alternate History) | |||
After both of their copilots die, Washington and Zaslavskaya must work together to return to Earth from lunar orbit. Story set in alternate history in which the Bay of Pigs Invasion led US into war in Cuba, and John F. Kennedy survived 1963 assassination attempt. Gemini is inserted into translunar trajectory by Chiron booster (Agena mated to Centaur). Vasily was Zaslavskaya's husband; Hemshaw also flew on earlier Gemini mission. Washington later commands Moon mission to Mare Nectaris and is named chief test pilot for Space Shuttle to service Skylabs One through Six. Zaslavskaya becomes a colonel in the Israeli Air Force and joins shuttle project. [40] [41] | ||||||
Frank Conner | Rocket Men (2013), short film | Project Gemini Sigma (homemade rocket) | Contemporary | |||
Retired astronaut Conner builds homemade rocket with fired planetarium director. Conner was assigned to Gemini 11 but broke his arm and was replaced by Dick Gordon. [42] | ||||||
Robert Braddock | Rocketship (2013), short film | Project Gemini | 1965 / Contemporary | |||
Astronaut who was assigned as command pilot of Gemini 9, but never flew in space due to heart problem. [43] | ||||||
Blue Gemini: Tim Agnew, Maj. Crew One: Andrew M. "Drew" Carson, Maj. (Command Pilot) Scott Ernst Ourecky, Maj. (Pilot) Crew Two: Tom "Big Head" Howard (Command Pilot) Pete "Squeaky" Riddle, Maj. (Pilot) Crew Three: Parch Jackson, Maj. (Command Pilot) Mike Sigler (Pilot) MOL: Jeff McKnight, Cmdr. (USN) Three unnamed astronauts (USN) First MOL mission: Chris Cowin, Cmdr. (USN) (Command Pilot) Edward Russo, Lt. Col. (USAF) (Pilot) Kochevnik: Vladimir Felixovich Gogol, Lt. Col. (operational nickname Kochevnik ["Nomad"]) (Commander) Pavel Dmitriyevich Vasilyev, Maj. (Soviet Air Force) (First Flight Engineer) Petr Mikhailovich Travkin, Maj. (Soviet Air Force) (Second Flight Engineer) Krepost: Pavel Dmitriyevich Vasilyev, Maj. (Commander) Petr Mikhailovich Travkin, Maj. Kochevnik: Vladimir Felixovich Gogol, Lt. Col. Space Shuttle: Andrew Carson Ourecky (NASA/USAF) | Blue Gemini (2015), Blue Darker Than Black (2016), Pale Blue (2016), novels | United States Air Force Blue Gemini: Gemini-Interceptor (Gemini-I) United States Navy: Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Gemini-B Soviet Union: Kochevnik ("Nomad") ( Soyuz ) Krepost ("Fortified outpost") (Military space station)/Soyuz Kochevnik ("Nomad") (Soyuz) Space Shuttle | April 25, 1966 – June 19, 1969 (Blue Gemini) July 17, 1969 – August 27, 1972 (Blue Darker Than Black) August 29, 1972 – June 7, 1974 / Contemporary (Pale Blue) | |||
Blue Gemini program is secretly reactivated to inspect and disable Soviet satellites. Gemini-Is are launched from Johnston Island and touch down on land using paraglider. Crew Two launches on test flight (Mission One) on February 25, 1969; Crew One flies first operational mission (Mission Two) June 13–14, 1969 (Blue Gemini). Crew One flies Mission Three September 9–11, 1969, and Mission Four March 10–13, 1970 (crash-landing in Haiti). Crew Three flies Missions Five and Six in June and September 1970; Crew One flies Missions Seven through Ten from January 1971 to January 1972. Soyuz Kochevnik flies secret mission to test military space station equipment from May 8 to c. May 18, 1970. MOL project is transferred from Air Force to Navy after its official cancellation; Cowin and Russo fly first MOL mission July–August 1972. Blue Gemini Crew One flies Mission Eleven (rescue mission to MOL) August 17–18, 1972 (Blue Darker Than Black). Nuclear-armed Krepost occupied from September 14 – October 24, 1972. Blue Gemini Crew One flies Mission Twelve (to Krepost) October 22–24, 1972 (launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station). Second Soyuz Kochevnik launched to relieve Krepost on October 23, 1972 (Pale Blue). [44] [45] [46] | ||||||
Gemini 5: Jim Harrison, Capt. (USAF) (Backup Commander) | The Last Pilot (2015), novel | NASA: X-15 Project Gemini | October 1947 – December 24, 1968 | |||
Air Force test pilot selected as member of NASA Astronaut Group 2. Harrison is assigned as prime commander of Gemini 8, but is pulled from mission due to personal issues. [47] | ||||||
Andrei, [lower-alpha 4] Col. (Soviet Air Forces) | Voskhod (2015), short film | Voskhod 3 | 1966 (November – December) | |||
Cosmonaut stranded in orbit contacts American amateur radio operator. [48] | ||||||
Silk Hamaker (no first names given) | Goldie Vance No. 8 (2016), comic book | Unknown (Gemini?) | Early 1960s (prior to August 11, 1962 [lower-alpha 5] ) | |||
Astronauts who shared spacesuit after spacecraft developed leak in orbit. Referenced only. [49] |
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration. In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China.
Voskhod 2 was a Soviet crewed space mission in March 1965. The Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock. It established another milestone in space exploration when Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave the spacecraft in a specialised spacesuit to conduct a 12-minute spacewalk.
A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surface from orbit or sub-orbit, and are distinguished from other types of recoverable spacecraft by their blunt shape, not having wings and often containing little fuel other than what is necessary for a safe return. Capsule-based crewed spacecraft such as Soyuz or Orion are often supported by a service or adapter module, and sometimes augmented with an extra module for extended space operations. Capsules make up the majority of crewed spacecraft designs, although one crewed spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, has flown in orbit.
Michael Z. Williamson is an American military science fiction and military fiction author best known for his libertarian-themed Freehold series published by Baen Books. Between 2004 and 2016, Williamson published eight Freehold novels, exploring military and political themes as well as first contact with alien beings. This was followed by the Forged in Blood (2017) and Freehold: Resistance (2019) anthologies, consisting of short stories taking place in the Freehold universe, some by Williamson and some by other authors, including Larry Correia, Tony Daniel, Tom Kratman and Brad R. Torgersen.
Marooned is a 1964 science fiction thriller novel by American writer Martin Caidin, about a crewed spacecraft stranded in Earth orbit, oxygen running out, and only an experimental craft available to attempt a rescue. A film based on the novel led Caidin to prepare a revised version of it in 1968. The film was released in 1969, four months after the Apollo 11 mission, with the revised novel sold by book stores a few weeks earlier.
Sarah A. Hoyt is a Portuguese-born American science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction writer. She won the 2011 Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel for her science fiction novel Darkship Thieves, and the 2018 Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel for Uncharted, which she co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson. She has written under the noms de plume Sarah D'Almeida, Elise Hyatt, Sarah Marques, Laurien Gardner, and Sarah Marques de Almeida Hoyt. She was the leader of the Sad Puppies campaign in the year that it ceased nominating candidates.
Globus IMP instruments were spacecraft navigation instruments used in Soviet and Russian crewed spacecraft. The IMP acronym stems from the Russian expression Indicator of position in flight, but the instrument is informally referred to as the Globus. It displays the nadir of the spacecraft on a rotating terrestrial globe. It functions as an onboard, autonomous indicator of the spacecraft's location relative to Earth coordinates. An electro-mechanical device in the tradition of complex post-World War II clocks such as master clocks, the Globus IMP instrument incorporates hundreds of mechanical components common to horology. This instrument is a mechanical computer for navigation akin to the Norden bombsight. It mechanically computes complex functions and displays its output through mechanical displacements of the globe and other indicator components. It also modulates electric signals from other instruments.
Brad R. Torgersen is an American science fiction author whose short stories regularly appear in various anthologies and magazines, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Charles E. Gannon is an American novelist and game designer who has worked primarily on hard science fiction and role-playing games.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an American science fiction author and editor. He has edited twenty-two anthologies, and written a space opera trilogy, and an ongoing, near-future police procedural series set in Kansas City, Missouri, and a near future thriller novel being developed as a motion picture. He wrote a non-fiction book on how to write a novel. He was a finalist, with Jennifer Brozek, for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor for the anthology Shattered Shields. His anthology, Infinite Stars, was nominated for the 2018 Locus Award for Best Anthology.
David John Butler is an American speculative fiction author. His epic flintlock fantasy novel Witchy Kingdom won the Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel in 2020. Witchy Winter won the 2018 AML Award for Best Novel and the 2018 Whitney Award for Best Speculative Fiction, and Witchy Eye was a preliminary nominee for the Gemmell Morningstar Award.