1958 saw the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) adopt a word for the men and women it trains to go into space: Astronaut. It means “sailor among the stars”. Astronauts are people trained to pilot and travel in the spacecraft. They travel beyond the earth’s atmosphere and into space and conduct exploration and experimentation activities.
Astronauts mainly take on either of two roles: pilot astronauts who pilot the international space station and space shuttles a ...more