Welcome to the Astronaut, Yuhangyuan, and Cosmonaut Database!

Welcome to my Personal Database of Astronauts, Yuhangyuan, and Cosmonauts who have flown into space and people who completed a program of Astronaut, Yuhangyuan or Cosmonaut training but didn't fly in outer space. To limit the amount of work needed to create and maintain this database, I choose not to include Astronaut, Yuhangyuan or Cosmonaut candidates unless I duplicated an error from one of my source websites.

The X-15 program wasn't originally included in this database because of a problem with classifying the flights. There were a total of 199 flights flew by the X-15 between 1959 and 1968. Most of these flights stayed in the atmosphere. The United States Air Force (USAF) awarded astronaut wings to the eight pilots who flew the X-15 above 80 km. On the other hand, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) requires a flight to fly above 100 km to classified as a spaceflight. Joseph Walker was the only one of the twelve X-15 pilots to reach the altitude of 100 km and is the X-15 pilot to be considered an astronaut by the FAI. The twelve X-15 pilots and two X-15 pilot candidates are included in this database. They are asterisked with two X-15 flight totals: total X-15 flights flown and X-15 flights flown above 80 km. Information has been included on all 199 X-15 flights in the X-15 Flights section with one page dedicated the 13 X-15 flight that flew above 80 km. The Manned Space Flight Chronology, now added to this database, has information on all 199 X-15 flights.

This database only contains information on the flights that the Astronauts, Yuhangyuan and Cosmonauts flew or to which were assigned. There is no biographical information in this database right now; however, the new look is preparing this database for adding the biographical information.

First thing, Definitions

• Astronaut - A person who has been launched into outer space by the United States. In this database, all Americans launched into outer space and foreigners launched on the Space Shuttle. This database also follows the practice of referring to the Russian passengers aboard the Space Shuttle as cosmonauts.
• Cosmonaut - A person who has been launched into outer space by either the Soviet Union (USSR) or Russia. For the purpose of this database, the Russian space program inherited the Soviet space program after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. The cutoff flights between Soviet and Russian flights are Soyuz TM-13 and Soyuz TM-14. Foreigners launched on the Soyuz spacecraft are also called cosmonauts. Americans launched on the Soyuz are called astronauts except for Dennis Tito. Since it has been reported that Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit would be the first American astronauts to land in a Soyuz spacecraft, Dennis Tito should be considered to be the first American cosmonaut, since he was the first American to land in a Soyuz spacecraft. With announcement of Gregory Olsen as the third space tourist, I decided to consider American space tourists who pay for seats on the Soyuz spacecraft as American cosmonauts. However, American space tourists will still be listed with other American astronauts in the zero flights index pages.
• Yuhangyuan - A person who has been launched into outer space by China. Yuhangyuan are also referred as "Taikonauts" after the Chinese word for space - "taikong".
• Outer Space - Several standards for the beginning of outer space exists. The astronomical standard for the beginning of outer space is 100 km altitude, which is accepted by the FAI. Check out the FAI's article on the Karman Line. A second standard for the beginning of outer space is the USAF standard of 80 km, which has been adopted by NASA and the FAA. Still another standard for beginning of outer space is where the Earth's gravitational influence ends.
• Spacewalk (EVA) - The American definition of spacewalks is the time spent outside of the spacecraft, and the Russian definition of spacewalks is the time spent exposed to the vacuum of outer space. This database applies the American spacewalk definition to American space flights, and the Russian spacewalk definition to Russian space flights. EVA stands for extravehicular activity.
• MOL - Manned Orbital Laboratory
• ASTP - Apollo-Soyuz Test Program
• ISS - The International Space Station ("Alpha")
• GLV - Titan II Gemini Launch Vehicle
• AS - Apollo-Saturn
• MA - Mercury-Atlas
• MR - Mercury-Redstone
• ASI - Italian Space Agency
• CNES - French Space Agency
• ESA - European Space Agency
• NASDA - National Space Development Agency of Japan (replaced by JAXA on October 1, 2003)
• JAXA - Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (replaced NASDA on October 1, 2003)