Portal:Spaceflight/Selected biography/archive

Selected Biography: From 20th January 2006 until 8th April 2006.

Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American test pilot and astronaut who was the first man to walk on the Moon.

Armstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio and in his youth became an Eagle Scout and as an adult was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award.

He served in the Korean War as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot.

Selected Biography: From 8th April 2006 until 2 July 2007.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин; March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968), was a Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first human to travel into space, as well as orbit the Earth.

Yuri Gagarin was born in Klushino near Gzhatsk, a region west of Moscow, Russia, on March 9, 1934 (the town would be renamed Gagarin in 1968 to honour Yuri), and his parents worked on a collective farm.

After starting an apprenticeship in a metalworks as a foundryman, Gagarin was selected for further training at a high technical school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that began to take up an increasing proportion of his time. After completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. After graduating, he was posted at an airbase in Murmansk region, near Norwegian border

On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). His call sign in this flight was Cedar (Russian: Кедр). After the flight, Gagarin became an instant, worldwide celebrity, touring widely to promote the Soviet achievement. On March 27, 1968 he was killed in a crash of a MiG-15 UTI on a routine training flight near Kirzhach together with his instructor. It is uncertain what caused the crash, but a 1986 inquest suggests that the turbulence from a Su-11 interceptor airplane using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin's plane to go out of control.

Selected Biography: From 2 July 2007 to 10 September 2007.

Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (Сергей Константинович Крикалёв, born August 27, 1958) is a Russian cosmonaut and veteran of six space flights. He has been dubbed by many “the last Soviet Citizen” as in 1991–1992 he spent 311 days, 20 hours and 1 minute aboard the Mir space station whilst back on Earth the Soviet Union collapsed.

Krikalev was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia. He is married to Yelena Yuryevna Terekhina and has one daughter, Olga Sergeevna Krikaleva, born in 1990. Sergei enjoys swimming, skiing, cycling, aerobatic flying, and amateur radio operations, particularly from space (callsigns U5MIR and X75M1K).

He overtook Sergei Avdeyev's previous record for the career total time spent in space (747.59 days) during Expedition 11 to the International Space Station. Krikalev has logged a total 803 days and 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.

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Selected Biography: From 10 September 2007 to 2 January 2008

Valentin Glushko (Валентин Петрович Глушко; Валентин Петрович Глушко) (born September 2, 1908; died January 10, 1989) was a Soviet engineer of Ukrainian descent, and one of the three principal Soviet "Chief Designers" of spacecraft and rockets during the Soviet/American Space Race. Engines of his RD-107 design were used to launch the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. He also designed the powerful RD-170 liquid-propellant engine, modern variants of which are currently used on the Zenit rocket and Atlas V, and another variant is planned for the Angara rocket currently under development.

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