The Final Frontier For thousands of years human beings looked up and wondered what was beyond the clouds We found out in the 20th century when the fi rst astronauts launched into space Astronauts confi rmed theories that space was a vacuum They discovered that stars shine clearer beyond Earth’s atmosphere This new knowledge paved the way for an entire fl eet of space-based telescopes STEAM Fast Fact The fi rst human in space was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin He made a 108-minute orbital fl ight around Earth in the Vostok 1 spacecraft on April 12 1961 Thirty-four years later Valery Polyakov another Russian cosmonaut set a record for spending 438 consecutive days in space Can you imagine living in outer space for more than a year 6 Yuri Gagarin 1934 1968
Real STEAM Job Astronaut Astronauts do their jobs in space but they spend a lot of time on the ground training and studying The National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA screens thousands of aspiring astronauts every year NASA even looks for candidates with degrees in archaeology or geography The candidates undergo physical and psychological tests to ensure they can work and survive in outer space While some astronauts like Thomas Pesquet are pilots or engineers some are scientists who conduct experiments in space Orion Spacecraft STEAM Fast Fact NASA has only selected 339 candidates out of thousands of NASA has only selected 339 candidates out of thousands of applicants to become astronauts since the program was founded in 1959 Some of them became the fi rst Americans to orbit Earth and the fi rst astronauts to land on the moon NASA’s current astronaut candidates are training to go farther The space agency plans to send humans to Mars in the 2030s and its engineers are developing the Orion spacecraft to send them there One day maybe you can live and work on the Red Planet 7
STEAM Spotlight Astronauts in the United States train at the Johnson Space Center JSC in Houston Texas which was built in 1963 The JSC is the home of the famous Apollo program which sent astronauts to the moon It’s also hosted the space shuttle program which lasted for 30 years and was retired in 2011 The space center houses the Mission Control Center which communicates with astronauts in space But its coolest feature The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory a large pool that is 202 feet 61 57 meters long 102 feet 31 meters wide 40 feet 12 meters deep and holds 6 2 million gallons 23,469,553 liters of water The pool simulates a zero gravity environment like outer space NASA trains astronauts and oversees missions at the Johnson Space Center in Texas 8
An astronaut trains in the Johnson Space Center’s pool Some astronauts are experienced pilots with military backgrounds Others are engineers who make sure power systems are always up and running Another group of space explorers are called payload specialists They have degrees in medicine biology physics and other fi elds 9
