National Astronaut Day is celebrated on May 5 since 2016 to commemorate the first time an American, Alan Shepard, went to space. From the first-ever space flight to the longest spaceflight by a woman; we have come a long way. It is a long way from the first women’s space flight to the longest spaceflight by a woman.
Astronauts are heroes who continue to inspire us to reach for the stars each year on National Astronaut Day. It is a tribute to all the brave people who risked their lives to expand mankind’s understanding of the universe and space exploration in general.
The purpose of National Astronaut Day is to share the experiences and stories of astronauts with young space enthusiasts and motivate them to follow their dreams.
Some interesting facts about space
One million Earths could fit inside the Sun, and the Sun is considered a star of average size?
Comets are composed of sand, ice, and carbon dioxide.
Since there is no atmosphere in space, it is completely silent. Astronauts use radios to communicate in space.
Venus has an average surface temperature of about 450 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest planet in the solar system. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, but it has no atmosphere to regulate its temperature.
Mars has the longest valley and the biggest volcano. The planet is also known as the Red Planet.
The sunset appears blue on mars.
Do you know how many stars there are in the universe? Let us tell you that nobody knows about it. Scientists estimate that there are 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies in space, so counting stars is pretty much impossible.
The stars of the Neutron planet can spin 600 times per second.
In Venus, one day is longer than one year.
Astronomers believe that water floats in space. A huge amount of water vapour has been found in space that holds about 140 trillion times the mass of water in the Earth’s oceans, somewhere around 10 billion light years away.
There are mountains on the planet Pluto.
Read More: Interesting facts about Our Solar System
History of National Astronaut Day
National Astronaut Day was created in 2016 by the Uniphi Space Agency. A talent and marketing division of Uniphi Good LLC, a company that represents over 20 former NASA astronauts.
As part of the response to the space race and Russia’s first successful launch into space, NASA initiated an astronaut selection procedure in January 1959. In order to do so, 508 military test pilots’ records were screened from which 110 candidates were selected. As a result of the extremely difficult selection process, seven individuals were chosen based on final interviews. They were L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Scott Carpenter, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, John H. Glenn Jr., Alan Shepard Jr., Walter Schirra Jr., and Donald Slayton. They would go down in history as the Mercury Seven.
On May 5, 1961, Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space. In 15 minutes, the plane reached a height of 116 miles, which itself was a milestone.