Космонавты: Отбор и подготовка к полетам в космос

None
a list of those who have flown to space

This is a list of astronauts by year of selection: people selected to train for a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Until recently, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. However, with the advent of suborbital flight starting with privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut. While the term astronaut is sometimes applied to anyone who trains for travels into space—including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists—this article lists only professional astronauts, those who have been selected to train as a profession. This includes national space programs and private industry programs which train and/or hire their own professional astronauts. More than 500 people have trained as astronauts. A list of everyone who has flown in space can be found at List of space travelers by name.

Fourteen pilots were directly involved with the X 15, although only twelve actually flew the vehicles. There was no formal selection process, since everyone chosen was already a qualified test pilot. Scott Crossfield and Alvin White were the prime and backup North American Aviation test pilots who first became involved with the project. Air Force Captains Iven Kincheloe (prime pilot) and Robert White (backup) were assigned to the X 15 in 1957. When Kincheloe was killed in an accident through a different rocket aircraft program, White became prime pilot and Captain Robert Rushworth became his backup. The first NASA pilots were Joseph Walker and Neil Armstrong. Lieutenant Commander Forrest S. Petersen represented the Navy. Walker and Armstrong were eventually replaced by NASA pilots John B. McKay (1960), Milton Thompson (1963) and William H. Dana (1965). White and Rushworth were succeeded by Captain Joe Engle (1963), Captain William Joseph Knight (1964) and Major Michael Adams (1966). The Navy selected Lieutenant Lloyd Hoover (1924–2016) as Peterson's replacement, though he never trained or flew. as of 2023, the only surviving X 15 pilot is Joe Engle.

Boeing hired former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson to join the Space Exploration Team. Candidates for Boeing's astronaut corps include former NASA astronauts, commercial scientist astronauts and test pilots who have never flown in space.

SpaceX has employed former NASA astronauts, but did not select any SpaceX employees to fly its commercial vehicles to the International Space Station. SpaceX's former medical director at SpaceX, Anil Menon, is now a NASA astronaut selected in 2021 as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 23.

The world's first commercial astronaut corps, the Association of Spaceflight Professionals received funding for a series of crewed spaceflight missions through the NASA Flight Opportunities Program in March 2012. Several million dollars have been allocated for detailed spectroscopic analysis of high altitude noctilucent cloud formations on suborbital flights using rapidly reusable, task and deploy spaceplanes. The organization's commercial astronauts go through a selection process modeled after the NASA Astronaut Corps, which involves NASA astronauts. Some of its members serve as astronaut trainers themselves; some have interviewed as finalists in national space agency astronaut candidate selection campaigns. Yi So yeon, who completed an orbital mission to the International Space Station, is a member of the organization.

Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic astronauts include Michael Alsbury (killed in the 2014 Virgin Galactic crash), Rob Bendall (Canada), Richard Branson, Peter Kalogiannis, Niki Lauda (Austria), Brian Maisler, Clint Nichols, Wes Persall, Burt Rutan, Peter Seiffert, Peter Siebold, Mark Stucky, and Dave Mackay. Informal educator and aerospace historian Gregory Kennedy was among those listed.

Copenhagen Suborbitals (2008, Denmark) seeks to make Denmark the fourth nation to launch humans above the Kármán line.

Mars One was a private initiative with claims to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2023. The project was led by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who announced plans for the Mars One mission in May 2012. A Mars One astronaut selection announcement was made on April 19, 2013, and started its search on April 22, 2013. By August 2013, Mars One had more than 200,000 applicants from around the world. Round Two selection results were declared on December 30, 2013, wherein a total of 1058 applicants from 107 countries were selected. Mars One received a variety of criticism relating to medical, technical and financial feasibility. Unverified rumors claimed that Mars One was a scam designed to take as much money as possible from donors, including those participating as contestants. In February 2019, it was reported that Mars One had declared bankruptcy in a Swiss court on January 15, 2019, and was permanently dissolved as a company.

Inspiration Mars Foundation, an American nonprofit founded by Dennis Tito, aimed to launch a human mission to flyby Mars in January 2018, or, as the 2018 date was missed, in 2021. Flight candidates included husband and wife travel duo Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, who participated in the Biosphere 2 experiment.

Waypoint2Space was granted FAA safety approval for its training services in 2014. The company works in collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to provide spaceflight training.

The first private firm that tried to build a suborbital space rocket, Truax Engineering, selected company employee, engineer and lifelong aviator Jeana Yeager as the first test pilot for its rocket. The project was halted in 1991 due to lack of funds.