User:Rocketmaniac/List of Astronauts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an alphabetical list of astronauts, people who trained to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Until recently, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. However, with the first sub-orbital flight of the privately-funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created - the commercial astronaut.
While the term astronaut is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists, this article only lists professional astronauts. A list of everyone who has flown in space can be found at List of space travelers by name.
Names in italic are astronauts that have left Low Earth orbit, names in bold are astronauts that have walked on the moon. The flags indicate the astronaut's citizenship at the time of flight(s). As of 2007, more than 450 people had have trained as astronauts.