Europe's astronauts:Men and Women Working in Space
EUROPE IN SPACE HISTORY ROCKETS SPACECRAFT ASTRONAUTS SPACE STATION ASTRONOMY EUROPE
First woman to fly in space as a result of a newspaper ad for " Astronaut wanted - no experience necessary": British Chemist Helen Patricia Sharman stayed a week at Russia's space station Mir.
Helen Sharman
First gourmet food in space: The first French cuisine in orbit was taken to the space station Salyut 7 in 1982 by French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien. In 1985, French astronaut Patrick Baudry treated his fellow crew members aboard U.S. shuttle Discovery to gourmet dining.
Best space food consumed: At Mir station in 1988, French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien treated Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov, Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Valery Polyakov to 23 gourmet foods from a French chef, including compote of pigeon with dates and dried raisins, duck with artichokes, oxtail fondue with tomatoes and pickles, beef bourguignon, saute de veau Marengo, ham and fruit pates, bread, rolls, cheeses, nuts, coffee and chocolate bars. The delicacies were canned. The chef, saying French cuisine is inconceivable without wine, regretted a bottle could not go to space, but wine and sauces would float away without gravity. Dishes had to be small without bones, or sauces to become flying droplets. Meat was made to absorb sauce to guard against dryness.
Yuri Gagarin
First cosmonauts: The Star City 12, picked in March 1960, were Pavel I. Belyayev, Valeri F. Bykovsky, Yuri A. Gagarin, Viktor V. Gorbatko, Yevgeny V. Khrunov, Vladimir M. Komarov, Alexei A. Leonov, Andrian G. Nikolayev, Pavel R. Popovich, Georgi S. Shonin, Gherman S. Titov and Boris V. Volynov.
First human being in space: Yuri Gagarin also was the first man in orbit. He completed one revolution around Earth in 1 hour 48 minutes in Vostok 1 April 12, 1961.
Second man in orbit: Gherman Titov completed 16 revolutions around the globe in 25 hours 18 minutes in Vostok 2 August 6, 1961.
First woman in space, first woman in orbit: USSR cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was not only the first woman in orbit, but also the first ordinary person in space. She was a textile mill worker who enjoyed the hobby of parachute jumping when she was picked for a class of women to train for spaceflight. USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted a spectacular, so, by age 25, Tereshkova was a cosmonaut. She spent 71 hours orbiting Earth 48 times in June 1963 in her capsule Sea Gull.
Valentina Tereshkova
Second woman in space, second woman in orbit: USSR cosmonaut Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya flew to the USSR's Salyut 7 space station August 19, 1982.
First woman to take a spacewalk: USSR cosmonaut Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya
First woman to go to space twice: Svetlana Savitskaya flew to the Salyut 7 space station in August 1982 and again in July 1984.
Russian woman with most time in space: cosmonaut Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova flew a total of 178 days, including 169 days aboard space station Mir in 1994 and nine days in a U.S. shuttle flight to Mir in 1997.
More information on Europe's astronauts
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