Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.

The first human in space was Russian Yuri Gagarin, who was launched into space on April 12, 1961 aboard Vostok 1. The first woman was Russian Valentina Tereshkova, launched into space in June 1963 aboard Vostok 6.Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on May 5, 1961, while the first American woman in space was Sally Ride, during Spac Shuttle Challenger's mission STS-7, on June 18, 1983. The youngest person to fly in space is Russian Gherman Titov, who was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2. (Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness). The oldest person who has flown in space is John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew on STS-95. The longest stay in space was 438 days, by Russian Valeri Polyakov.As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz. The furthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km, during the Apollo 13 emergency. Now our country also has sent our first astronaut Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar B. Dato’ Sheikh Mustapha Shukor to ISS by Soyuz through Russia.