Which astronaut became the president of airline

Buzz Aldrin is a veteran astronaut who became only the second person to ever set foot on the moon. Part of the Apollo 11 spaceflight commanded by Neil Armstrong, he made the journey to the lunar surface in July 1969 where he collected lunar rock samples, photographed the terrain and helped to raise an American flag according to NASA. As such, the former fighter pilot and engineer soon became a celebrity but he continued to promote space exploration long after he left NASA. In 2016, he also explored Antarctica— an experience which nearly killed him. Early Life Buzz Aldrin was born in the United States on January 20, 1930 in Montclair, New Jersey, according to Johnson Space Center (JSC), NASA. He was actually named Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., after his father (the US Army aviator and officer Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr) but when one of the youngster's two elder sisters, Fay Ann, began mispronouncing "brother" as "buzzer" the nickname, shortened to Buzz, soon stuck according to Space.com. All of his family including mother Marion and eldest sister Madeleine called him Buzz and he liked it so much he used it himself, finally making it his legal first name in 1988, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. During his childhood, however, he didn't display any great interest in space. He was intrigued by science fiction — Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in particular — but he didn't look towards the night sky with a great desire to explore, Aldrin said in an interview in 1988. The Apollo 11 cr...

I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle? – Alan Shepard, May 5, 1961 On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. His historic mission in the Freedom 7 spacecraft came a little over three weeks after the Soviet Union successfully made Yuri Gagarin the first person in space. While Gagarin’s spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and included a single orbit around Earth, Shepard’s lasted only 15 minutes and was suborbital. Shepard’s mission was part of Project Mercury, NASA’s first human spaceflight program, and Shepard was part of a group of astronauts called the Mercury Seven. NASA introduced the Project Mercury astronauts to the world on April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established. Known as the Mercury Seven or Original Seven, they are (front row, left to right) Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. Alan B. Shepard Jr earned his bachelor’s degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1951 and the Naval War College in 1957. Shepard began his naval career deployed in the Pacific during World War II and he later entered flight training at Corpus Christi and Pensacola, earning his wings in 1947. As a pilot, Shepard logged more than 8,000 flying hours, 3,700 of which were in j...

Aldrin wrote two autobiographies, Return to Earth (1973), which told the story of his experience with depression following the Apollo 11 mission, and Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (2009, with Men from Earth (1989, with Malcolm McConnell); two children’s books, Reaching for the Moon (2005) and Look to the Stars (2009); and two forward-looking works, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration (2013) and No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons from a Man Who Walked on the Moon (2016).

Space shuttle Discovery lifts off on Oct. 29, 1998. Discovery carried a crew of six, including Payload Specialist John H. Glenn Jr., senator from Ohio, marking his second voyage into space after 36 years. Glenn returned as the world's oldest astronaut to the high frontier he pioneered for America 36 years prior. 1 of 13 i View slideshow Updated 5 p.m. ET The first American to orbit the Earth has died. John Glenn was the last surviving member of the original Mercury astronauts. He would later have a long political career as a U.S. senator, but that didn't stop his pioneering ways. Glenn made history a second time in 1998, when he flew aboard the shuttle Discovery to become the oldest person to fly in space. Glenn was 95 when he died; he had been hospitalized in an Ohio State University medical center in Columbus since last week. John Glenn stands beside a Mercury capsule during training at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 1962. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Glenn had been battling health issues since a stroke a few years ago. His death Thursday was confirmed by Hank Wilson, communications director of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University. President Obama said that Glenn's trailblazing showed "with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together." The president said, "John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts. ... On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John...

Mark and Scott Kelly began their astronaut training in August 1996. Mark’s first spaceflight was as pilot of the Endeavour on the STS-108 mission (December 5–17, 2001), which carried three astronauts and supplies to the STS-121 mission as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery, which carried a German astronaut to the ISS, increasing its crew from two to three. Mark made two subsequent flights to the ISS as mission commander. On the STS-124 mission (May 31–June 14, 2008) of the space shuttle Discovery, commanded by Mark, the Japanese experiment module Kibo was joined to the ISS. Scott was launched to the ISS on the Russian Endeavour’s last mission,

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: If you've ever traveled somewhere that left you so enthralled, you wanted to go back over and over, then you get how Peggy Whitson feels about space. Whitson is an astronaut, the first woman to command the International Space Station. She broke the American record for cumulative days in space - 665. Well, that was back in 2017. She told NPR that same year she was probably done but that she would miss it. PEGGY WHITSON: Anyone that's ever gone to space is always wanting to go back. You get addicted to it. KELLY: So addicted that last month, at age 63, she un-retired and signed on as commander of the Ax-2 mission for a private company, Axiom Space, where she works as the director of human spaceflight. On board with her - three paying passengers, including Rayyanah Barnawi and another Saudi astronaut. Peggy Whitson, welcome back to Earth. WHITSON: Well, it's - I would say it's great to be back, but it was great to be up there, too. So it was a great experience all around. KELLY: What made you say yes to this mission? - because you told us back in 2017 you thought you were done with going to space. WHITSON: I thought I was done because I didn't think there would be opportunities. Luckily for me, Axiom Space had these opportunities become available, and I, of course, signed up with a jumping up and down kind of a response. KELLY: Oh, really? Like, what was - they didn't have to pitch very hard to persuade you that you should sign on. WHITSON: No, absolu...

Dec. 9, 2016 – The same phrase that hailed John Glenn's historic launch into space more than 50 years ago became a social media hashtag on Thursday (Dec. 8), marking the astronaut's final departure from Earth. "#GodspeedJohnGlenn," read the tweets, status notes and photo captions as the "Very sad to hear about the passing of John Glenn, last of the Original 7 American astronauts," wrote Mark Polansky, a former astronaut, on Twitter. "#GodspeedJohnGlenn." "An inspiration to so many. #GodspeedJohnGlenn," British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted on Thursday. Almost 55 years earlier, on Feb. 20, 1962, fellow Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed those same words to Glenn as he rocketed towards becoming the John Glenn aboard his Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7. (NASA) "Godspeed, John Glenn," "We lost a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn," President-Elect Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. "He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers." Some of those who Glenn inspired became his crew mates on his second spaceflight, 36 years after the first. "Mourning the loss of one of the greatest, kindest, & most humble Americans of our time," tweeted Scott Parazynski, who in 1998 launched alongside Glenn on board the space shuttle Discovery. "Godspeed, John Glenn." "[We were] honored by his presence when Glenn trained as a crew member on STS-95," said Ellen Ochoa, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and the first hispanic woman to launch into space. "Our...

Aldrin wrote two autobiographies, Return to Earth (1973), which told the story of his experience with depression following the Apollo 11 mission, and Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (2009, with Men from Earth (1989, with Malcolm McConnell); two children’s books, Reaching for the Moon (2005) and Look to the Stars (2009); and two forward-looking works, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration (2013) and No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons from a Man Who Walked on the Moon (2016).

Dec. 9, 2016 – The same phrase that hailed John Glenn's historic launch into space more than 50 years ago became a social media hashtag on Thursday (Dec. 8), marking the astronaut's final departure from Earth. "#GodspeedJohnGlenn," read the tweets, status notes and photo captions as the "Very sad to hear about the passing of John Glenn, last of the Original 7 American astronauts," wrote Mark Polansky, a former astronaut, on Twitter. "#GodspeedJohnGlenn." "An inspiration to so many. #GodspeedJohnGlenn," British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted on Thursday. Almost 55 years earlier, on Feb. 20, 1962, fellow Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter radioed those same words to Glenn as he rocketed towards becoming the John Glenn aboard his Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7. (NASA) "Godspeed, John Glenn," "We lost a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn," President-Elect Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. "He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers." Some of those who Glenn inspired became his crew mates on his second spaceflight, 36 years after the first. "Mourning the loss of one of the greatest, kindest, & most humble Americans of our time," tweeted Scott Parazynski, who in 1998 launched alongside Glenn on board the space shuttle Discovery. "Godspeed, John Glenn." "[We were] honored by his presence when Glenn trained as a crew member on STS-95," said Ellen Ochoa, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and the first hispanic woman to launch into space. "Our...

Mark and Scott Kelly began their astronaut training in August 1996. Mark’s first spaceflight was as pilot of the Endeavour on the STS-108 mission (December 5–17, 2001), which carried three astronauts and supplies to the STS-121 mission as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery, which carried a German astronaut to the ISS, increasing its crew from two to three. Mark made two subsequent flights to the ISS as mission commander. On the STS-124 mission (May 31–June 14, 2008) of the space shuttle Discovery, commanded by Mark, the Japanese experiment module Kibo was joined to the ISS. Scott was launched to the ISS on the Russian Endeavour’s last mission,