Human spaceflight

Uncommon card · No. 153185

Human spaceflight (also referred to as crewed spaceflight, and historically as manned spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts (American or other), cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers. Humans have had a continuous presence in space since 2 November 2000, on the International Space Station (ISS). The first human in space was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who launched as part of the Soviet Union's Vostok program on 12 April 1961 at the beginning of the Space Race. On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, as part of Project Mercury. On 20 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong landed on the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Neil A. Armstrong, Public domain