The most famous cosmonauts and astronauts
The top 3 according to 1 vote: Yuri Gagarin · Neil Armstrong · Valentina Tereshkova. (Updated Jan 31, 2023.)
The space explorers most often named in lists of the most famous cosmonauts and astronauts, and what put them in the history books.
Automatically translated (original in Русский). See the original
Top 15
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1
Yuri Gagarin
12 April 1961: the first human in space; his Vostok 1 flight lasted 108 minutes.
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2
Neil Armstrong
21 July 1969 (UTC): the first person on the Moon.
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3
Valentina Tereshkova
16 June 1963: the first woman in space, and the only one to fly solo.
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4
Alexei Leonov
18 March 1965: the first spacewalk.
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5
Buzz Aldrin
The second person on the Moon, with Armstrong on Apollo 11.
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6
Gherman Titov
August 1961: the first full day in orbit; the youngest person in space, at 25.
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7
John Glenn
1962: the first American in orbit; flew again in 1998 at 77.
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8
Alan Shepard
May 1961: the first American in space; later walked on the Moon on Apollo 14.
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9
Valeri Polyakov
The longest single spaceflight: 437 days on Mir (1994-1995).
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10
Sergei Krikalev
In 1991-1992 he left the USSR for orbit and came back to Russia.
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11
Svetlana Savitskaya
1984: the first woman to walk in space.
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12
Sally Ride
1983: the first American woman in space.
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13
Eugene Cernan
The last person to walk on the Moon (December 1972, Apollo 17).
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14
Yang Liwei
October 2003: the first Chinese astronaut (Shenzhou 5).
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15
Dennis Tito
2001: the first space tourist, flew to the ISS on a Soyuz.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 15… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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16
Gennady Padalka
Five flights and 878 days in space.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (3)
Поляков 437 суток на «Мире», рекорд до сих пор.
Гагарин навсегда первый. «Поехали!»
Леонов — первый выход в открытый космос, подвиг.