NASA

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

Moon Flyer

Rear Admiral Thomas K. Mattingly II (USN, Ret.), born March 17, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, and deceased October 31, 2023, was a distinguished U.S. Navy pilot and NASA astronaut. A graduate of Auburn University with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering (1958), he served as a naval aviator before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 1966. Originally slated for Apollo 13, he instead flew as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16 (1972), orbiting the Moon and performing an EVA, and later commanded two Space Shuttle missions, STS-4 (1982) and STS-51C (1985), logging over 504 hours in space. Mattingly held numerous honors, including the NASA and Navy Distinguished Service Medals, and contributed significantly to Apollo suit development and early Shuttle flight testing. He retired from NASA in 1985 and was survived by his son, Thomas III. Courtesy of NASA.

STS-51-C (Discovery)

The first classified Department of Defense Space Shuttle mission. Discovery was launched at or near the minimum air temperature the Solid Rocket Boosters were certified for at the time. After launch, it was discovered that a significant anomaly with all the O-ring seals on both Solid Rocket Boosters had occurred. All O-rings were found to be burned. In one place, the hot gasses from the rocket boosters had burned completely through the primary O-ring and nearly burned through the secondary seal -- which would have caused a Challenger-like failure. Morton Thiokol (who built the solid rockets) and NASA upper management both dismissed concerns raised by this finding. The Space Shuttle kept flying.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

STS-4 (Columbia)

The final test flight of the Space Shuttle program. It was the final time NASA assigned a complete backup crew for their missions until the International Space Station program. Columbia finished proving the Shuttle's capabilities on this flight, allowing NASA to declare the Shuttle "operational." Columbia landed on July 4th, after which President Reagan greeted the crew and Columbia's sister Shuttle, the newly completed Challenger, performed a ceremonial flyover while mounted to the back of a 747 aircraft.

Apollo 16

Apollo 16 was the second of three science-focused human lunar landings. Young and Duke spent just shy of 3 days on the Moon's surface and drove a second Moon car 26.7 km. While walking on the Moon's surface, Mission Control told Young Congress had approved funding for the Space Shuttle program; Young responded, "America sure needs that Shuttle."  He would go on to Command the first Shuttle mission almost exactly 9 years later. After leaving lunar orbit, Mattingly performed a spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes. At a distance of 320,000 km, it stands to this day as the farthest spacewalk ever performed from Earth.

The main Apollo spacecraft was a Command and Service Module designed to take three astronauts to and from the Moon’s orbit and provide access to the lunar lander during missions. After the Moon program ended, Apollo spacecraft flew three crews to the Skylab space station and performed the historic joint U.S.-Soviet mission in 1975.

Apollo

Thomas K. Mattingly II

United States of America

Apollo 16 Transearth EVA

STS-41-D (Discovery)

The maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Discovery. A June 26th launch attempt ended at T-6.4 seconds after two of the three Shuttle main engines had started to ignite. The pad abort triggered a hydrogen fire under Discovery, damaging the Space Shuttle. The abort led to major improvements in Shuttle abort safety guidelines and procedures and forced a two month delay to the flight, during which NASA cancelled STS-41-F and transferred its payload to this mission. After launch, the crew deployed three communications satellites for the U.S. (2) and Canada (1) and tested solar array technology. The flight marked the first time a company commercially sponsored an employee to fly on the Space Shuttle to perform one of its experiments.

STS-61-A (Challenger)

A Space Shuttle mission funded completely by West Germany. This marked the first time payload operations on a U.S. mission were not conducted from NASA centers but from West Germany instead. Challenger flew with the Spacelab module, containing 76 scientific experiments. With eight crewmembers, this mission holds the record for "most people on a single spacecraft for launch and landing."

Henry W. Hartsfield Jr.

STS-31 (Discovery)

On this mission NASA launched a window to our past: the Hubble Space Telescope. Discovery's crew deployed the immense telescope on April 25th, 1990.

STS-46 (Atlantis)

This mission deployed ESA's European Retrievable Carrier satellite, was the first to test the joint NASA/Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System, and marked the 150th human spaceflight to reach orbit.

Loren J. Shriver

This astronaut gave their life in the pursuit of space exploration.

Memorial

STS-51-L (Challenger)

The 25th flight of the Space Shuttle launched to deploy the second TDRS satellite for NASA, conduct "Teacher In Space" lessons, observe Halley's Comet, and carry out biomedical experiments. This was the 10th and final flight of Space Shuttle Challenger and marked the last time civilians (who were not members of the Astronaut Corps) flew on a NASA rocket. Launched in near-freezing conditions after a devastating temperature drop overnight, both O-ring seals between the two Solid Rocket Booster segments failed at the instant of launch. A temporary seal was formed by O-ring debris but was knocked loose when Challenger encountered upper level wind shear greater than she should have been launch into. The broken seal allowed hot gasses to escape the rocket booster and destroy the base of the External Tank. Challenger was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces 73 seconds after launch as the External Tank failed. Contrary to public memory, Challenger did not explode. All seven crewmembers lost their lives in what is still considered the worst spaceflight accident in history. It is the only fatal space accident that was broadcast live on TV. Over her short, three year career, Challenger spent a total of 62 days in space, travelled 41,527,414 km, and carried 60 cremembers.

Ellison S. Onizuka

STS-29 (Discovery)

This mission deployed the fourth NASA TDRS satellite and conducted a variety of experiments.

STS-48 (Discovery)

Discovery's crew of five deployed NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite to study human effects on the ozone and performed a variety of experiments.

James F. Buchli

Gary E. Payton

Moonwalker

This astronaut is in the top 5% for number of missions.

Frequent Flyer

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

Apollo 10

The flight that did everything except land on the Moon. Apollo 10 was a full-on dress rehearsal of Apollo 11. This mission would do everything except touch down on the lunar surface. The flight marked the first undocking and redocking of a spacecraft in orbit of a space body other than Earth and achieved the fastest speed to date for a human mission of 39,897 km/h. During the non-landing descent toward the Moon, Stafford and Cernan came within 15 km of the lunar surface. Apollo 10 was a total success. The stage was now set. Apollo 11 would attempt to land humans on the Moon.

STS-1 (Columbia)

The first flight of the Space Shuttle Program, and the first flight of Shuttle Columbia. The mission marked the first time in history a rocket was launched on its very first test flight with people onboard. At liftoff, an overpressure wave from Solid Rocket Booster ignition damaged and bent a critical flight control surface on Columbia, nearly preventing a safe return at the end of the mission. NASA enhanced the sound suppression system at the pad and the issue never recurred.

Gemini 3

The first human flight of NASA's Gemini Program saw two astronauts perform a three-orbit test flight of the new capsule. This mission marked the first time a human spacecraft changed its orbit using its onboard thrusters.

Gemini was a two-person spacecraft designed to prove technologies and procedures for the Apollo lunar landings. Crews proved rendezvous and docking as well as transfer from one ship to another via spacewalk were possible. Gemini demonstrated that humans could live and work in space for the length of time needed for a lunar flight.

Gemini

Gemini 10

This flight marked the first double-rendezvous in human spaceflight history, the first time a person met another spacecraft in space, the first U.S. mission to significantly raise its orbit higher than any human had ever been, and the first time a human spacecraft used a target vehicle's engine to change its orbit and control its orientation. The flight launched 100 minutes after its Agena target vehicle and docked to it 6 hours later. The crew then used the Agena's engine to raise their orbit from 272 km to 763 km -- the highest a human flight had gone to that point. The next day, they made two burns with the Agena to get into the correct orbit to rendezvous with another Agena that had been part of Gemini 8. Collins performed a spacewalk to photograph stars, sunrise, and the Gemini capsule. The crew rendezvoused with the second Agena and Collins performed a second spacewalk to retrieve a micrometeorite collector from the Agena.

European Space Agency (ESA)

STS-9 (Columbia)

Germany

A dedicated science flight co-sponsored by NASA and ESA, STS-9 marked the first time an ESA/West German astronaut reached space and the first time a non-American launched on a U.S. mission.

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