What is the astronaut?
Cosmonaut is a Soviet/Russian term for astronaut. The strictest definition of both, because words are synonymous, is a person trained in the Spaceflight program, which serves in the spacecraft. Cosmonaut can take a number of roles in space fighting. They can control missions, fly on a spacecraft, or serve as a crew member. With the growth of cosmic tourism, it is often necessary to distinguish between Cosmonaut and space tourist. People just fly on a shuttle who are only there for traveling, not considered astronauts or astronauts. Initially, the Soviet program took up early management. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to orbit the ground and reached the space in 1961. However, many of them consider early Soviet victories equally important. In 1963, for example, Valentina Tereshova was the first woman in space. The US would not send a woman into space, Sally Ride, only 20 years later in 1983.
Early Soviet space program was marked by a large amount of secrets, including coverage when people were killed or injured. They were ruthless and some of the cosmonauts were considered more or less expensive. The victory in space and beating the US was a strong motivation, but it also caused both the US and the USSR to be very secret in their operations.
As the end of the Cold War, it introduced a new era that was much more cooperative. For the first time, the US and the USSR worked, they shared at least some information and even planned joint missions. Exploring space, such as astronaut or astronaut, and understanding the cosmic flight mechanism allowed both countries significantly.
Speculation of early US failures was largely answered when President Gorbachev declassified most of the information about the Soviet program. For the first time, the world learned of the deaths of astronauts who were not really known, and accidents. In Communist Russia would admitThe aim of these defeats was equal to the confession of failure in the cosmic race.
Like American astronauts, past and contemporary astronauts are intelligent, very brave and gifted. Modern Cosmonaut tends to be associated with the Russian Federal Space Agency or the National Space Agency of Ukraine. Space travel emphasis is on further learning, sharing such information, and the hogressive lives and career of future astronauts.