China says they will put a man in space this year. I know the US and Russia have done this…but who else has successfully put a man in space? Wasn’t there a crazy Aussie attempting to send himself into space with a homemade rocket and homemade capsule? Did he succeed?
While the US and Russia are, to the best of my knowledge, the only two countries which have had manned space programs, I know that the US has included citizens of other countries on its space shuttle flights. I seem to remember a Japanese astronaut, a few Europeans, and a Canadian or two. I am pretty sure Russia has done the same.
A related question, has there been a non-US and non-Russian astronaut/cosmonaut/whanaught on the ISS? Seeing as this is an international initiative, I’d hope there would be by now.
If the OP means “which countries have successful manned space programs?”, then it’s just us and them so far!
Being able to stand on the shoulders of giants, I don’t think it would be difficult for other countries to achieve manned space flight, just expensive.
IIRC, Yuri Gagarin–the first man sent into space [by the USSR]–was Romanian.
China will most likely be next this year:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/01/02/china.mission/index.html
Japan is likely to be next, after China.
They will probably have a man up before the ESA
Pantellerite:
Gagarin … Romanian
A quick websearch overwhelmingly concludes he was Russian and born near Moscow (the first Romanian cosmonaut was Prunariu (1981): http://www.asss.utvinternet.com/articles2/articles2x2.htm).
Some think Gagarin may not have been the first human in space, just the first that survived.
http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/
I have no idea how likely this stuff is, but it seems at least possible. Anybody heard other sources for this, or a debunking?
OK, I actually found a debunking of that Lost Consmonauts sit:
http://www.users.wineasy.se/svengrahn/trackind/Torre/TorreB.html
Haven’t read it yet.
So far, yes, the expedition crews have been made up entirely of Russian Cosmonauts or American Astronauts. I should hope that other nationalities will eventually reside on the station, as they have for decades on the shuttle, but from what I’ve seen so far this doesn’t seem likely in the near future.
Well, I’ll be doggone. Thanks, for setting me straight, raygirvan. A good example of one those things that I was told, have always “known”, and never bothered to look up.