Facts about Astronauts
- 12
Returning astronauts must relearn to walk on Earth after extended missions, as the vestibular system recalibrates to gravity following months in microgravity.
- 11
Astronaut Michael Collins orbited the Moon 30 times alone in the Command Module during Apollo 11 in July 1969 while Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the lunar surface.
- 10
Astronaut John Glenn's body temperature dropped to 95.5 degrees Fahrenheit during his Mercury-Atlas 6 mission in 1962 due to a malfunctioning suit heating system.
- 09
Yuri Gagarin completed the first crewed spaceflight in 108 minutes aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, orbiting Earth once at approximately 17,500 miles per hour.
- 08
Astronauts' bones lose approximately 1 to 2 percent of their mass per month in microgravity, similar to the bone density loss experienced by patients with severe osteoporosis.
- 07
Astronauts experience fluid shifts in microgravity that cause their faces to swell and their spines to elongate by up to 2 inches during spaceflight.
- 06
A single spacesuit worn by Apollo astronauts cost approximately 250,000 dollars in 1969, equivalent to roughly 2.2 million dollars in 2024 adjusted for inflation.
- 05
Neil Armstrong's heart rate reached 150 beats per minute during the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, nearly triple his resting rate.
- 04
In 2019, Christina Koch set the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days aboard the International Space Station.
- 03
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station lose approximately 1.5 percent of their muscle mass per week during extended spaceflight due to microgravity.
- 02
The 6-mile-per-hour speed limit imposed on lunar rovers during Apollo missions prevented astronauts from traveling more than 4.7 miles from their landing site.
- 01
During their first spacewalk in 1965, Alexei Leonov spent twelve minutes outside Voskhod 2, becoming the first astronaut to leave a spacecraft.