List of astronauts by year of selection

This is a list of astronauts by year of selection, people selected for training 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 first sub-orbital flight of the 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 travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists, this article only lists professional astronauts. A list of everyone who has flown in space can be found at List of space travelers by name.

As of 2008, more than 480 people had trained as astronauts.

1954 – 1968
North American X-15 Pilots Group – USA


 * 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 back-up North American Aviation test pilots who first became involved with the project. Air Force Captains Iven Kincheloe (prime pilot) and Robert White (back-up) were assigned to the X-15 in 1957. When Kincheloe was killed in an accident (in a different rocket aircraft program), White became the prime pilot and Captain Robert Rushworth became his back-up. The first NASA pilots were Joseph Walker and Neil Armstrong. Lieutenant Commander Forrest S. Petersen represented the Navy.


 * Walker and Armstrong eventually were replaced by NASA pilots John B. McKay (1960), Milton Thompson (1963) and William 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 as Peterson's replacement, but he never trained or flew.

Note: Facts from Michael Cassutt's book Who's Who in Space.

1958
June 25 – Man In Space Soonest – USA


 * Neil Armstrong, William B. Bridgeman, Albert S. Crossfield, Iven C. Kincheloe, John B. McKay, Robert A. Rushworth, Joseph A. Walker, Alvin S. White, Robert M. White


 * Note: Nine test pilots from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the United States Air Force (USAF), North American Aviation (NAA), and Douglas Aircraft Corporation were selected for the Man In Space Soonest project, a USAF initiative to put a man in space before the Soviet Union did. The project was cancelled on August 1, but two of these men would later reach space: Walker made two X-15 flights above 100 kilometers in 1963; and Neil Armstrong joined NASA in 1962 and flew in Project Gemini and Apollo, becoming the first human to set foot on the Moon at 02:56 UTC July 21, 1969.

1959
April 9 – NASA Group 1 – Mercury Seven – USA


 * Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.


 * Note: The first group of astronauts selected by NASA were for Project Mercury in April 1959. All seven were military test pilots, a requirement specified by President Eisenhower to simplify the selection process. All seven eventually flew in space, although one, Deke Slayton, did not fly a Mercury mission due to a medical disqualification, instead flying later on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. The other six each flew one Mercury mission. For two of these, Scott Carpenter and John Glenn, the Mercury mission was their only flight in the Apollo era (Glenn later flew on the Space Shuttle). Three of the Mercury astronauts, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper and Wally Schirra, also each flew a mission during the Gemini program. Alan Shepard was slated to fly Mercury 10 before its cancellation and was the original commander for the Gemini 3 mission, but did not fly due to a medical disqualification. After surgery to correct the problem, he later flew as commander of Apollo 14. He was the only Mercury astronaut to go to the Moon. Wally Schirra also flew on Apollo as commander of Apollo 7, as well as Mercury and Gemini, the only astronaut to fly on all three types of spacecraft. (Gus Grissom was scheduled to fly the first Apollo flight, but died in a fire on the launch pad during training.  It is also widely assumed that had he lived, he would have been the first man to walk on the moon.)  Gordon Cooper was a backup commander for Apollo 10, the "dress rehearsal" flight for the lunar landing, and would have commanded another mission (likely to have been Apollo 13, according to the crew rotation), but was bumped from the rotation after a disagreement with NASA management.


 * At least one member of the Mercury Seven flew on every NASA class of human-rated spacecraft (but not space station) through the end of the 20th century: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle.

1960
March 7 – Air Force Group 1 – USSR


 * Ivan Anikeyev, Pavel Belyayev, Valentin Bondarenko, Valery Bykovsky, Valentin Filatyev, Yuri Gagarin, Viktor Gorbatko, Anatoli Kartashov, Yevgeny Khrunov, Vladimir Komarov, Aleksei Leonov, Grigori Nelyubov, Andrian Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Mars Rafikov, Georgi Shonin, Gherman Titov, Valentin Varlamov, Boris Volynov, and Dmitri Zaikin.


 * Note: The initial group of Soviet cosmonauts was chosen from Soviet Air Force jet pilots.

April – Dyna-Soar Group 1 – USA


 * Neil Armstrong, Bill Dana, Henry C. Gordon, Pete Knight, Russell L. Rogers, Milt Thompson, and James W. Wood.


 * Note: In April 1960, seven men were secretly chosen for the Dyna-Soar program. Armstrong had previously been part of the MISS program. Armstrong and Dana left the program in the summer of 1962.

1962
March 12 – Female Group – USSR


 * Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomaryova, Irina Solovyova, Valentina Tereshkova, and Zhanna Yorkina.


 * Note: On March 12, 1962, a group of five civilian women with parachuting experience was added to the cosmonaut training program. Only Tereshkova would fly. A leading Soviet high-altitude parachutist, 20-year-old Tatyana Kuznetsova was, and remains, the youngest person ever selected to train for spaceflight.

September 17 – NASA Group 2 – The Next Nine (Also: The Nifty Nine, The New Nine) – USA


 * Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Charles Conrad, Jim McDivitt, Jim Lovell, Elliot See, Tom Stafford, Ed White and John Young.


 * Note: A second group of nine astronauts was selected by NASA in September 1962. All of this group flew missions in the Gemini program except Elliott See, who died in a flight accident while preparing for the Gemini 9 flight. All of the others also flew on Apollo, except for Ed White, who died in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire.  Three of this group, McDivitt, Borman and Armstrong, made single flights in both Gemini and Apollo.  Four others, Young, Lovell, Stafford and Conrad, each made two flights in Gemini and at least one flight in Apollo.  Young and Lovell both made two Apollo flights.  Conrad and Stafford also made second flights in Apollo spacecraft, Conrad on Skylab 2 and Stafford in Apollo-Soyuz.  Six of this group, Borman, Lovell, Stafford, Young, Armstrong and Conrad, made flights to the Moon.  Lovell and Young went to the Moon twice.  Armstrong, Conrad, and Young walked on the Moon.  McDivitt was later Apollo Program Director and became the first general officer and would have been either the prime LM Pilot or backup commander for Apollo 14, but left NASA due to a conflict between Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.  John Young also later flew on the Space Shuttle (STS-1 and STS-9) and would retire from NASA in 2004.  He was both the first and last of his group to go into space.

September 19 – Dyna-Soar Group 2 – USA


 * Albert Crews


 * Note: On September 19, 1962, Crews was added to the Dyna-Soar program and the names of the six active Dyna-Soar astronauts were announced to the public.

1963
January 10 – Air Force Group 2 – USSR


 * Yuri Artyukhin, Eduard Buinovski, Lev Demin, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Anatoly Filipchenko, Aleksei Gubarev, Vladislav Gulyayev, Pyotr Kolodin, Eduard Kugno, Anatoli Kuklin, Aleksandr Matinchenko, Vladimir Shatalov, Lev Vorobyov, Anatoly Voronov, Vitaly Zholobov

October 17 – NASA Group 3 – The Fourteen – USA


 * Buzz Aldrin, William Anders, Charles Bassett, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Roger Chaffee, Michael Collins, Walter Cunningham, Donn Eisele, Theodore Freeman, Richard Gordon, Russell Schweickart, David Scott, Clifton Williams


 * Note: All of the third group (except those who died) flew on the Apollo program – Aldrin, Bean, Cernan and Scott walked on the Moon. Five of them (Aldrin, Cernan, Collins, Gordon and Scott) also flew missions during the Gemini program.  Cernan would be the only astronaut from this group to fly to the Moon twice (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17), while Bean would command the Skylab 3 mission.


 * Bassett, Chaffee, Freeman and Williams all died before they could fly in space – Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire, the others in plane crashes.

1964
January 25 – Air Force Group 2 Supplemental – USSR


 * Georgi Beregovoi

May 26 – Voskhod Group (Medical Group 1) – USSR


 * Vladimir Benderov, Georgi Katys, Vasili Lazarev, Boris Polyakov, Aleksei Sorokin, Boris Yegorov

June 11 – Civilian Specialist Group 1 – USSR


 * Konstantin Feoktistov

1965
June 1 – Journalist Group 1 – USSR


 * Yaroslav Golovanov, Yuri Letunov, Mikhail Rebrov


 * Note: In 1965, three civilian journalists were selected for cosmonaut training in preparation for flight on a Voskhod mission. When the Voskhod program was canceled, Golovanov and Letunov were dismissed. Rebrov, on the other hand, stayed with the space program as a journalist until 1974.

June 1 – Medical Group 2 – USSR


 * Yevgeni Illyin, Aleksandr Kiselyov, Yuri Senkevich


 * Note: These physicians were selected for the long-duration Voskhod flights, all of which were subsequently canceled to make way for the Soviet Moon program. All three were dismissed at the beginning of the following year.

June 28 – NASA Group 4 – The Scientists – USA


 * Owen Garriott, Edward Gibson, Duane Graveline, Joseph Kerwin, Curt Michel, Harrison Schmitt


 * Note: Graveline and Michel left NASA without flying in space. Schmitt walked on the Moon on Apollo 17. Garriott, Gibson and Kerwin all flew to Skylab. Garriott also flew on Space Shuttle flight STS-9, becoming the first Amateur radio operator (callsign W5LFL) to operate from orbit.

October 28 – Air Force Group 3 – USSR


 * Boris Belousov, Vladimir Degtyarov, Anatoli Fyodorov, Yuri Glazkov, Vitali Grishchenko, Veygeni Khludeyev, Leonid Kizim, Pyotr Klimuk, Gennadi Kolesnikov, Aleksandr Kramarenko, Mikhail Lisun, Aleksandr Petrushenko, Vladimir Preobrazhensky, Valery Rozhdestvensky, Gennadi Sarafanov, Ansar Sharafutdinov, Vasili Shcheglov, Aleksandr Skvortsov, Eduard Stepanov, Valeri Voloshin, Oleg Yakovlev, Vyacheslav Zudov


 * Note: This group of cosmonauts was selected for participation in five separate Soyuz programmes that the USSR was running. These included military programs (with and without the Almaz/Salyut space stations) and two lunar programs (only one of which aimed at an actual lunar landing). In the end, only the orbital program and the space station program went ahead, and few of the cosmonauts from this group ever were given the chance to fly.

November – USAF MOL Group 1 – USA


 * Michael J. Adams, Albert H. Crews Jr., John L. Finley, Richard E. Lawyer, Lachlan Macleay, Francis G. Neubeck, James M. Taylor, Richard H. Truly.


 * Note: This group was selected for training for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Of this group, only Truly transferred to NASA after the cancellation of the MOL program and later flew on the Space Shuttle. In 1989, Truly became the first astronaut to be NASA Administrator.

1966
April 4 – NASA Group 5 – USA


 * Vance Brand, John S. Bull, Gerald Carr, Charles Duke, Joseph Engle, Ronald Evans, Edward Givens, Fred Haise, James Irwin, Don Lind, Jack Lousma, Ken Mattingly, Bruce McCandless II, Edgar Mitchell, William Pogue, Stuart Roosa, Jack Swigert, Paul Weitz, Alfred Worden.


 * Note: Veteran astronaut John Young christened this group the "Original Nineteen", in parody of the original seven Mercury astronauts. Roughly half of them flew in the Apollo program, while others flew during Skylab and the Space Shuttle, with Brand also flying on the American half of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Engle was the only NASA astronaut to have earned his astronaut wings before his selection. Two of this group never flew into space: Givens was killed in a car accident in 1967, and Bull resigned from the Astronaut Corps in 1968 after discovering he had pulmonary disease. Engle, Lind, and McCandless were the only ones from this group who never flew an Apollo spacecraft; Brand, Haise, Lousma, Mattingly, and Weitz all flew both an Apollo and a Shuttle (though Haise only flew in the Approach and Landing Tests, not into space).

May 23 – Civilian Specialist Group 2 – USSR


 * Sergei Anokhin, Vladimir Bugrov, Gennadi Dolgopolov, Georgi Grechko, Valeri Kubasov, Oleg Makarov, Vladislav Volkov, Aleksei Yeliseyev

June 30 – USAF MOL Group 2 – USA


 * Karol Bobko, Robert Crippen, Gordon Fullerton, Henry Hartsfield, Robert Overmyer.


 * Note: This group was selected for training for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. All transferred to NASA after the MOL program was canceled and all five flew on the Space Shuttle as pilot astronauts.

1967
January 31 – Civilian Specialist Group 2 Supplemental – USSR


 * Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Vitali Sevastyanov

May 7 – Air Force Group 4 – USSR


 * Vladimir Alekseyev, Vladimir Beloborodov, Mikhail Burdayev, Sergei Gaidukov, Vladimir Isakov, Vladimir Kovalyonok, Vladimir Kozelsky, Vladimir Lyakhov, Yuri Malyshev, Viktor Pisarev, Nikolai Porvatkin, Mikhail Sologub

May 22 – Academy of Sciences Group – USSR


 * Mars Fathulin, Rudolf Gulyayev, Ordinard Kolomitsev, Vsevolod Yegorov, Valentin Yershov

June – USAF MOL Group 3 – USA


 * James Abrahamson, Robert Herres, Robert H. Lawrence Jr, Donald Peterson.


 * Note: This group was selected for training for the US Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Lawrence was the first African-American to be chosen as an astronaut, but was killed in a jet accident before the MOL program was canceled in 1969 (had Lawrence not died, he would have been, if accepted by NASA, the first African-American astronaut candidate, pre-dating Guion Bluford, Ronald McNair and Frederick Gregory by nine years).  Peterson transferred to NASA in 1969 after the MOL cancellation and would fly on the Space Shuttle.  Herres would later become the first Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Goldwater-Nichols Act in 1987.

October 4 – NASA Group 6 – XS-11 (The Excess Eleven) – USA


 * Joseph Allen, Philip Chapman, Anthony England, Karl Henize, Donald Holmquest, William B. Lenoir, Anthony Llewellyn, Story Musgrave, Brian O'Leary, Robert Parker, William Thornton.


 * Note: This second group of scientist-astronauts were assigned as backup crew members for the last three Apollo missions or as backup crew members for Skylab. Except for Chapman, Holmquest, Llewellyn, and O'Leary - all of whom resigned from NASA before the end of the Apollo program - the group members eventually flew as Mission Specialists during the Space Shuttle program. With his flight on STS-80 at the age of 61, Musgrave held the title of "oldest astronaut" prior to John Glenn's second flight.

1968
May 27 – Civilian Specialist Group 3 – USSR


 * Vladimir Fartushny, Viktor Patsayev, Valeri Yazdovsky

1969
August 14 – NASA Group 7 – USA
 * Karol Bobko, Robert Crippen, Gordon Fullerton, Henry Hartsfield, Robert Overmyer, Donald H. Peterson, Richard Truly.


 * Note: This group is all USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts who transferred to NASA after the cancellation of the MOL program in 1969. All flew on early Space Shuttle flights. Truly, in 1989, would become the first astronaut to become NASA Administrator, holding the position until 1992.

September 10 – Civilian Engineer Group – USSR


 * Anatoli Demyanenko, Valeri Makrushin, Dmitri Yuyukov

1970
April 27 – Air Force Group 5 – USSR


 * Anatoli Berezovoi, Aleksandr Dedkov, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Nikolai Fefelov, Valeri Illarianov, Yuri Isaulov, Vladimir Kozlov, Leonid Popov, Yuri Romanenko

1971
February 25 – 1971 Scientific Group – USSR


 * Gurgen Ivanyan

May – Shuguang Group 1970 – China


 * Chai Hongliang, Dong Xiaohai, Du Jincheng, Fang Guojun, Hu Zhanzi, Li Shichang, Liu Chongfu, Liu Zhongyi, Lu Xiangxiao, Ma Zizhong, Meng Senlin, Shao Zhijian, Wang Fuhe, Wang Fuquan, Wang Quanbo, Wang Rongsen, Wang Zhiyue, Yu Guilin, Zhang Ruxiang

1972
March 22 – Civilian Specialist Group 4 – USSR


 * Boris Andreyev, Valentin Lebedev, Yuri Ponomaryov

March 22 – Medical Group 3 – USSR


 * Georgi Machinski, Valeri Polyakov, Lev Smirenny

1973
March 27 – Civilian Specialist Group 5 – USSR


 * Vladimir Aksyonov, Vladimir Gevorkyan, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov, Valeri Romanov, Valery Ryumin, Gennady Strekalov

1974
January 1 – Physician Group – USSR


 * Zyyadin Abuzyarov

1976
August 23 – Air Force Group 6 – USSR


 * Leonid Ivanov, Leonid Kadenyuk, Nikolai Moskalenko, Sergei Protchenko, Yevgeni Saley, Anatoly Solovyev, Vladimir Titov, Vladimir Vasyutin, Alexander Volkov

November 25 – 1976 Intercosmos Group – USSR


 * Mirosław Hermaszewski (Poland), Zenon Jankowski (Poland), Sigmund Jähn (East Germany), Eberhard Köllner (East Germany), Oldřich Pelčák (Czechoslovakia), Vladimír Remek (Czechoslovakia)

1978
January 16 – NASA Group 8 – TFNG (Thirty-Five New Guys) – USA


 * Pilots: Daniel Brandenstein, Michael Coats, Richard Covey, John Creighton, Robert Gibson, Frederick D. Gregory, Frederick Hauck, Jon McBride, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Brewster Shaw, Loren Shriver, David Walker, Donald Williams


 * Mission specialists: Guion Bluford, James Buchli, John Fabian, Anna Fisher, Dale Gardner, S. David Griggs, Terry Hart, Steven Hawley, Jeffrey Hoffman, Shannon Lucid, Ronald McNair, Richard Mullane, Steven Nagel, George Nelson, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon, Robert Stewart, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Norman Thagard, James van Hoften


 * Due to the long delay between the last Apollo mission and the first flight of the Space Shuttle in 1981, few astronauts from the older groups stayed with NASA. Thus in 1978 a new group of 35 astronauts was selected after 9 years without new astronauts, including the first American female astronauts, and also the first black astronauts to fly, Guion Bluford and Frederick D. Gregory (the first black astronaut was Lawrence). Bob Stewart was the first Army astronaut to be selected (almost 19 years after the original Mercury Seven). Since then, a new group has been selected roughly every two years.


 * Two different astronaut groups were formed: pilots and mission specialists. Additionally the shuttle program has payload specialists who are selected for a single mission and are not part of the astronaut corps – among them were mostly scientists, also a few politicians and many international astronauts.


 * Of the first of the post-Apollo group, Sally Ride would become the first American woman in space (STS-7). Later, she would fly with Kathryn Sullivan on a Shuttle flight, in which Sullivan would become the first American woman to perform an EVA. Dr. Thagard, who flew with Ride on STS-7, would later become the first American to be launched on a Russian rocket (Soyuz TM-21 or "Mir-18") to the Mir space station, while Shannon Lucid would serve on the Mir for slightly over 6 months, breaking all American space duration records (both the Skylab 4 record and Thagard's) in 1996–97 until Sunita Williams (who was selected 20 years later) broke Lucid's record. Of this group, Scobee, Resnik, Onizuka, and McNair would perish in the Challenger Disaster. Of the astronauts chosen, only Anna Fisher still remains on active duty (although her tenure included an extended leave of absence from 1989 to 1996), while Robert Gibson and Rhea Seddon became the first active duty astronauts to marry (both are now retired).  Shannon Lucid's tenure was unbroken from 1978 until she announced her retirement in 2012 - in later years she served as a space shuttle CAPCOM, up to the final day of the final shuttle mission.  After the Challenger Disaster, Sally Ride would serve on both the Rogers Commission and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

March 1 – 1978 Intercosmos Group – USSR


 * Aleksandr P. Aleksandrov (Bulgaria), Dumitru Dediu (Romania), Jose Lopez Falcon (Cuba), Bertalan Farkas (Hungary), Maidarzhavyn Ganzorig (Mongolia), Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa (Mongolia), Georgi Ivanov (Bulgaria), Bela Magyari (Hungary), Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez (Cuba), Dumitru Prunariu (Romania)

May 1 – Spacelab Payload Specialists Group 1 – ESA


 * Ulf Merbold (West Germany), Claude Nicollier (Switzerland), Wubbo Ockels (Netherlands), Franco Malerba (Italia)

1979
August – USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer – Group 1


 * Frank J. Casserino, Jeffrey E. Detroye, Michael A. Hamel, Terry A. Higbee, Daryl J. Joseph, Malcolm W. Lydon, Gary E. Payton, Jerry J. Rij, Paul A. Sefchek, Eric E. Sundberg, David M. Vidrine, John B. Watterson, Keith C. Wright


 * Of this group, only Payton ever flew into space, as a Payload Specialist aboard a dedicated Department of Defense Shuttle flight.

April 1 – 1979 Intercosmos Group – USSR


 * Tuân Pham (Vietnam), Thanh Liem Bui (Vietnam)

1980
May 29 – NASA Group 9 – USA


 * Pilots: John Blaha, Charles Bolden, Roy Bridges, Guy Gardner, Ronald Grabe, Bryan O'Connor, Richard N. Richards, Michael J. Smith


 * Mission specialists: James Bagian, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Mary Cleave, Bonnie Dunbar, William Fisher, David Hilmers, David Leestma, John Lounge, Jerry Ross, Sherwood Spring, Robert Springer


 * International mission specialists: Claude Nicollier, Wubbo Ockels


 * Of this group, Franklin Chang-Diaz would become the first Hispanic-American in space, Michael Smith would perish in the Challenger Disaster, while John Blaha would fly aboard the Mir space station. Both Jerry Ross and Chang-Diaz currently jointly hold the record of number of manned spaceflights flown at seven.  Charles Bolden was chosen in 2009 to become the second NASA astronaut and the first African-American to the post of NASA Administrator on a full-time basis (although Frederick Gregory, who is also African-American and a former Shuttle commander, held the post on a temporary basis between the departure of Sean O'Keefe and the appointment of Michael Griffin in 2005).  The announcement, made a day before the conclusion of the STS-125 flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, was coincidental, because Bolden was the pilot on the telescope's deployment flight in 1990.

July 30 – LII-1/IMBP-3/MAP/NPOE-5/AN-2 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union
 * LII-1: Anatoly Levchenko, Alexandr Shchukin, Rimantas Stankevicius, Igor Volk
 * IBMP: Galina Amelkina, Yelena Dobrokvashina, Larisa Pozharskaya, Tamara Zakharova
 * MAP: Svetlana Savitskaya
 * NPOE: Yekaterina Ivanova, Natalya Kuleshova, Irina Pronina
 * AN-2: Irina Latysheva

 1980 – CNES Group 1 – France
 * Patrick Baudry, Jean-Loup Chrétien


 * Chrétien and Baudry would become the first Frenchmen in space. Chrétien flew with Soviets to Salyut 7 in 1982, and Baudry on Space Shuttle STS-51-G flight in 1985. Chrétien would later fly to the Space Station Mir and would become a Shuttle Mission Specialist in the 1990s.

1982
August – USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer – Group 2


 * James B. Armor, Jr., Michael W. Booen, Livingston L. Holder, Jr., Larry D. James, Charles E. Jones, Maureen C. LaComb, Michael R. Mantz, Randy T. Odle, William A. Pailes, Craig A. Puz, Katherine E. Roberts, Jess M. Sponable, W. David Thompson, Glenn S. Yeakel


 * Jones was killed on September 11, 2001, as a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11. Of this group, only Pailes ever flew in space, aboard a dedicated Department of Defense Shuttle mission as a Payload Specialist.

September 11 – 1982 Intercosmos Group – India


 * Ravish Malhotra, Rakesh Sharma

December 1 – Spacelab Payload Specialists Group – Germany


 * Reinhard Furrer, Ernst Messerschmid

1983
December – NRC Group – Canada


 * Roberta Bondar, Marc Garneau, Steve MacLean, Kenneth Money, Robert Thirsk, and Bjarni Tryggvason


 * This first Canadian astronaut group was selected by the National Research Council of Canada and were transferred to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) when it was created in 1989. All the astronauts flew on the U.S. Space Shuttle by 1997 except Kenneth Money, who resigned from CSA in 1992.

1984
February 15 – NPOE-6 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union
 * Aleksandr Kaleri, Sergei Yemelyanov

May 23 – NASA Group 10 – The Maggots – USA


 * Pilots: Kenneth Cameron, John Casper, Frank Culbertson, Sidney Gutierrez, Blaine Hammond, Michael McCulley, James Wetherbee


 * Mission specialists: James Adamson, Ellen Baker, Mark Brown, Sonny Carter, Marsha Ivins, Mark Lee, David Low, William Shepherd, Kathryn Thornton, Charles "Lacy" Veach


 * Of this group, William Shepherd would become the commander of the first International Space Station crew (Expedition 1). James Wetherbee would become the only person to command five spaceflight missions. Sonny Carter died in 1991 in a plane crash while on NASA business.

1985
May – ISRO Insat Group – India


 * Nagapathi Chidambar Bhat, Paramaswaren Radhakrishnan Nair


 * Note: Although selected to fly on the Space Shuttle, none of the group members flew due to the Challenger disaster of 1986. Bhat was assigned to a shuttle flight that was cancelled in the wake of Challenger.

June 4 – NASA Group 11 – USA


 * Pilots: Michael A. Baker, Robert D. Cabana, Brian Duffy, Terence Henricks, Stephen Oswald, Stephen Thorne


 * Mission Specialists: Jerome Apt, Charles Gemar, Linda Godwin, Richard Hieb, Tamara Jernigan, Carl Meade, Rodolfo Neri Vela, Pierre Thuot


 * Note: Thorne was killed in the crash of a private airplane before his first flight assignment.

July 19 – NASA Teacher in Space Program – USA


 * Christa McAuliffe, Barbara Morgan


 * Note: McAuliffe and Morgan were selected as the prime and backup Payload Specialists for the STS-51-L mission in 1985. McAuliffe was killed in the Challenger disaster, 73 seconds after liftoff. Morgan would later join the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1998. She flew on the STS-118 mission in 2007, 21 years after Challenger.

August 1 – 1985 NASDA Group – Japan


 * Mamoru Mohri, Chiaki Mukai, Takao Doi

August – USAF Manned Spaceflight Engineer – Group 3


 * Joseph J. Caretto, Robert B. Crombie, Frank M. DeArmond, David P. Staib, Jr., Teresa M. Stevens

September 2 – GKNII-2/NPOE-7 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union
 * GKNII: Viktor Afanasyev, Anatoly Artsebarsky, Gennadi Manakov
 * NPOE: Sergei Krikalyov, Andrei Zaytsev

September 18 – CNES Group 2 – France


 * Claudie André-Deshays, Jean-François Clervoy, Jean-Jacques Favier, Jean-Pierre Haigneré, Frédéric Patat, Michel Tognini, Michel Viso

September 30 - 1985 Intercosmos Group – Syria


 * Muhammed Ahmed Faris, Munir Habib Habib

October – Indonesian Palapa Group – Indonesia


 * Taufik Akbar, Pratiwi Sudarmono


 * Note: Due to the Challenger accident, none of the group members flew in space. Sudarmono was assigned to a shuttle flight in 1986, with Akbar as her backup.

December 27 - ATLAS-1 - ESA


 * Dirk D. Frimout (Belgium)

1987
January 5 - Shipka Group – Bulgaria


 * Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Krasimir Stoyanov

March 26 – TsPK-8/NPOE-8 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union
 * TsPK: Valery Korzun, Vladimir Dezhurov, Yuri Gidzenko, Yuri Malenchenko, Vasily Tsibliyev
 * NPOE: Sergei Avdeyev

June 5 – NASA Group 12 – The GAFFers – USA


 * Pilots: Andrew M. Allen, Kenneth Bowersox, Curtis Brown, Kevin Chilton, Donald McMonagle, William Readdy, Kenneth Reightler


 * Mission specialists: Thomas Akers, Jan Davis, Michael Foale, Gregory Harbaugh, Mae Jemison, Bruce Melnick, Mario Runco, James Voss


 * The group's informal nickname is an acronym for "George Abbey Final Fifteen". Of this group, Mae Jemison would become the first female African-American in space, while Michael Foale would serve on extended missions to both Mir and the International Space Station as well as a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  At the time of the Columbia accident in 2003, William Readdy was Associate Administrator for Space Flight and Kenneth Bowersox was commanding the Expedition 6 crew on the ISS.  Chilton, after leaving NASA, became the first NASA astronaut to become a full General in the U.S. Air Force (Lt. Gen. Thomas Stafford, USAF, and VADM Richard Truly, USN were three-star officers) and held the position of commander, U.S. Strategic Command.

August 3 – 1987 German Group


 * Renate Brümmer, Hans Schlegel, Gerhard Thiele, Heike Walpot, Ulrich Walter

1988
February 12 – OS „Mir” Group - Afghanistan


 * Mohammad Dauran Ghulam Masum, Abdul Ahad Mohmand

1989
January 25 – IMBP-5/GKNII-3/NPOE-9/TsPK-10 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union


 * IMBP: Vladimir Karashtin, Vasili Lukiyanyuk, Boris Morukov
 * GNKII: Anatoli Polonsky, Valeri Tokarev, Aleksandr Yablontsev
 * NPOE: Nikolai Budarin, Yelena Kondakova, Aleksandr Poleshchuk, Yury Usachov
 * TsPK: Sergei Kirchevsky, Gennady Padalka, Yury Onufriyenko

May 23 – 1989 Italian Group
 * Franco Malerba, Franco Rossitto, Umberto Guidoni, Cristiano Batalli Cosmovici

September 29 – ATLAS Payload Specialists – NASA
 * Charles R. Chappell, Michael Lampton, Byron K. Lichtenberg

1990
January 17 – NASA Group 13 – The Hairballs – USA


 * Pilots: Kenneth Cockrell, Eileen Collins, William G. Gregory, James Halsell, Charles Precourt, Richard Searfoss, Terrence Wilcutt


 * Mission specialists: Daniel Bursch, Leroy Chiao, Michael R. Clifford, Bernard Harris, Susan Helms, Thomas David Jones, William McArthur, James Newman, Ellen Ochoa, Ronald Sega, Nancy Currie, Donald A. Thomas, Janice Voss, Carl E. Walz, Peter Wisoff, David Wolf


 * Collins would go on to be the first female shuttle pilot, the first female shuttle commander, and then commander of the second "Return to Flight" mission in 2005. The "Hairballs" nickname, according to Jones in his book "Sky Walking," came after the group, the 13th NASA astronaut class, put a black cat on its group patch.

February – CNES Group 3 – France


 * Léopold Eyharts, Jean-Marc Gasparini, Philippe Perrin, Benoit Silve

'''May 11 – TsPK-11 Cosmonaut Group – Soviet Union
 * Talgat Musabayev, Vladimir Severin, Salizhan Sharipov, Sergei Vozovikov, Sergei Zalyotin

October 8 – 1990 German Group


 * Reinhold Ewald, Klaus-Dietrich Flade

1992
'''March 3 – NPOE-10 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * Aleksandr Lazutkin, Sergei Treshchov, Pavel Vinogradov

March 31 – NASA Group 14 – The Hogs – USA


 * Pilots: Scott Horowitz, Brent Jett, Kevin Kregel, Kent Rominger


 * Mission specialists: Daniel T. Barry, Charles Brady, Catherine Coleman, Michael Gernhardt, John Grunsfeld, Wendy Lawrence, Jerry Linenger, Richard Linnehan, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Scott Parazynski, Winston Scott, Steven Smith, Joseph Tanner, Andy Thomas, Mary Weber


 * International mission specialists: Marc Garneau (Canada), Chris Hadfield (Canada), Maurizio Cheli (Italy), Jean-François Clervoy (France), Koichi Wakata (Japan)


 * Beginning with this NASA Group, non-US astronauts representing their home country's space agencies were brought in and trained alongside their NASA counterparts as full-fledged mission specialists, eligible to be assigned to any shuttle mission.

April – 1992 NASDA Group – Japan


 * Koichi Wakata

June – CSA Group 2 – Canada


 * Dafydd Williams, Julie Payette, Chris Hadfield and Michael McKay


 * The second Canadian astronaut group were selected by CSA. All the astronauts flew on the U.S. Space Shuttle except Michael McKay who resigned due to medical reasons.

May 15 – 1992 ESA Group – ESA


 * Maurizio Cheli (Italy), Jean-François Clervoy (France), Pedro Duque (Spain), Christer Fuglesang (Sweden), Marianne Merchez (Belgium), Thomas Reiter (Germany)

1994
'''April 1 – NPOE-11 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * Nadezhda Kuzhelnaya, Mikhail Tyurin

December 12 – NASA Group 15 – The Flying Escargot – USA


 * Pilots: Scott Altman, Jeffrey Ashby, Michael Bloomfield, Joe Edwards, Dominic Gorie, Rick Husband, Steven Lindsey, Pamela Melroy, Susan (Still) Kilrain, Frederick Sturckow.


 * Mission specialists: Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, Robert Curbeam, Kathryn Hire, Janet Kavandi, Edward Lu, Carlos Noriega, James Reilly, Stephen Robinson.


 * International mission specialists: Jean-Loup Chrétien (France), Takao Doi (Japan), Michel Tognini (France), Dafydd Williams (Canada).


 * Husband, Anderson and Chawla were crewmembers on the final Columbia mission. Chrétien trained as a backup Spacelab crew member in the 1980s and flew on both U.S. and Soviet/Russian spacecraft, along with being the first non-U.S. or Soviet/Russian astronaut to perform a space walk.

1996
February 9 – MKS/RKKE-12 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * MKS: Oleg Kotov, Yuri Shargin
 * RKKE: Konstantin Kozeyev, Sergei Revin

March 26 – MKS supplemental cosmonaut group – Russia
 * Oleg Kononenko

May 1 – NASA Group 16 – The Sardines – USA


 * Pilots: Duane G. Carey, Stephen Frick, Charles O. Hobaugh, James M. Kelly, Mark Kelly, Scott Kelly, Paul Lockhart, Christopher Loria, William Cameron McCool, Mark L. Polansky.


 * Mission Specialists: David McDowell Brown, Daniel C. Burbank, Yvonne Cagle, Fernando Caldeiro, Charles Camarda, Laurel Clark, Michael Fincke, Patrick G. Forrester, John Herrington, Joan Higginbotham, Sandra Magnus, Michael J. Massimino, Richard Mastracchio, Lee Morin, Lisa Nowak, Donald Pettit, John L. Phillips, Paul W. Richards, Piers Sellers, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Daniel M. Tani, Rex J. Walheim, Peggy Whitson, Jeffrey Williams, Stephanie Wilson.


 * International Mission Specialists: Pedro Duque (Spain), Christer Fuglesang (Sweden), Umberto Guidoni (Italy), Steven MacLean (Canada), Mamoru Mohri (Japan), Soichi Noguchi (Japan), Julie Payette (Canada), Philippe Perrin (France), Gerhard Thiele (Germany).


 * Brown, Clark and McCool were crewmembers on the final Columbia mission. Mark and Scott Kelly are twin brothers, James Kelly is not related. Loria resigned from his shuttle mission due to injury and never flew before retiring from the astronaut corps. Nowak, who flew on STS-121, was arrested on February 5, 2007, after confronting a woman entangled in a love triangle with a fellow astronaut. She was dismissed by NASA on March 6, the first astronaut to be both grounded and dismissed (prior astronauts who were grounded due to non-medical issues usually resigned or retired).

June – NASDA Group – Japan


 * Soichi Noguchi

October – China Group 1996 – China


 * Li Qinglong, Wu Jie

November - Shuttle-97 Group – Ukraine


 * Leonid Kadeniuk, Yaroslav Pustovyi

1997
April (?) - Shuttle Group - Israel
 * Yitzhak Mayo, Ilan Ramon


 * Ramon was the first Israeli astronaut to fly in space and also a Payload Specialist on the final mission of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107).

'''July 28 – TsPK-12/RKKE-13 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * TsPK: Dmitri Kondratyev, Yury Lonchakov, Sergei Moshchenko, Oleg Moshkin, Roman Romanenko, Aleksandr Skvortsov, Maksim Surayev, Konstantin Valkov, Sergey Volkov
 * RKKE: Oleg Skripochka, Fyodor Yurchikhin

1998
January – Chinese Group 1 – China


 * Chen Quan 陈全, Deng Qingming 邓清明, Fei Junlong 费俊龙, Jing Haipeng 景海鹏, Liu Boming 刘伯明, Liu Wang 刘旺, Nie Haisheng 聂海胜, Pan Zhanchun 潘占春, Yang Liwei 杨利伟, Zhai Zhigang 翟志刚, Zhang Xiaoguan 张晓光, Zhao Chuandong 赵传东
 * In October 2003, Yang Liwei became the first man to be sent into space by the space program of China, and his mission, Shenzhou 5, made the PRC the third country to independently send people into space.

'''February 24 – RKKE-14 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * Mikhail Korniyenko

Mart 2 - OS „Mir” Stefanik Group – Slovakia


 * Ivan Bella, Michal Fulier

June 4 – NASA Group 17 – The Penguins – USA


 * Pilots: Lee Archambault, Christopher Ferguson, Kenneth Ham, Gregory C. Johnson, Gregory H. Johnson, William Oefelein, Alan Poindexter, George Zamka


 * Mission Specialists: Clayton Anderson, Tracy Caldwell, Gregory Chamitoff, Timothy Creamer, Michael Foreman, Michael E. Fossum, Stanley Love, Leland Melvin, Barbara Morgan, John D. Olivas, Nicholas Patrick, Garrett Reisman, Patricia Robertson, Steven Swanson, Douglas Wheelock, Sunita Williams, Neil Woodward


 * International Mission Specialists: Léopold Eyharts (France), Paolo Nespoli (Italy), Marcos Pontes (Brazil), Hans Schlegel (Germany), Robert Thirsk (Canada), Bjarni Tryggvason (Canada), Roberto Vittori (Italy)


 * Note: Group includes Barbara Morgan, who was the backup "Teacher-In-Space" for Christa McAuliffe for the ill-fated Challenger Disaster in 1986. While often referred to as an Educator Astronaut, Morgan was selected by NASA as a Mission Specialist, before the Educator Astronaut Project was formed.
 * Patricia Robertson (née Hilliard) was killed in the crash of a private airplane before she was assigned to a Shuttle mission.
 * Oefelein was dismissed from NASA in 2007 due to his involvement in a love triangle with fellow astronaut Lisa Nowak.

October 7 – 1998 ESA Group – ESA


 * Frank De Winne (Belgium), Léopold Eyharts (France), André Kuipers (Netherlands), Paolo Nespoli (Italy), Hans Schlegel (Germany), Roberto Vittori (Italy)

1999
February – 1999 NASDA Group – Japan


 * Satoshi Furukawa, Akihiko Hoshide, Naoko Sumino

1 November – 1999 ESA Group – Europe


 * Claudie André-Deshays, Philippe Perrin, Michel Tognini


 * The three remaining CNES (France) astronauts transferred to the ESA's astronaut corps in 1999.

2000
July 26 – NASA Group 18 – The Bugs – USA


 * Pilots: Dominic A. Antonelli, Eric A. Boe, Kevin A. Ford, Ronald J. Garan, Jr., Douglas G. Hurley, Terry W. Virts, Jr., Barry E. Wilmore


 * Mission Specialists: Michael R. Barratt, Robert L. Behnken, Stephen G. Bowen, B. Alvin Drew, Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good, Timothy L. Kopra, K. Megan McArthur, Karen L. Nyberg, Nicole P. Stott

2002
November 12 – Canadian Arrow astronaut team – Canada

David Ballinger, Larry C. Clark, Jason Paul Dyer, Marvin Edward 'Ted' Gow, Yaroslav 'Yarko' Pustovyi, Wayne 'Terry' Wong

2003
May 23 – TsPK-13/RKKE-15/IMBP-6 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * TsPK: Anatoli Ivanishin, Aleksandr Samokutyayev, Anton Shkaplerov, Evgeny Tarelkin, Sergei Zhukov
 * RKKE: Oleg Artemyev, Andrei Borisenko, Mark Serov
 * IMBP: Sergey Ryazansky

Kazakhstan - Group 1


 * Along with Russian cosmonauts were training two Kazakh cosmonaut: Aydyn Aimbetov and Mukhtar Aymakhanov

September 11 – SpaceShipOne – USA
 * Brian Binnie, Mike Melvill, Doug Shane, Peter Siebold


 * Note: This was the first real group of commercial astronauts. Only Binnie and Melville actually reached space during a SpaceShipOne flight. Siebold has also piloted SpaceShipTwo, but no flights have yet reached space, as of May 2013.

2004
May 6 – NASA Group 19 – The Peacocks – USA


 * Pilots: Randolph Bresnik, James Dutton


 * Mission specialists: Thomas Marshburn, Christopher Cassidy, R. Shane Kimbrough, Jose Hernández, Robert Satcher, Shannon Walker


 * Educator mission specialists: Joseph M. Acaba, Richard R. Arnold, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger


 * International mission specialists: Satoshi Furukawa (Japan), Akihiko Hoshide (Japan), Naoko Yamazaki (Japan)


 * Note: This group was the first to include Educator mission specialists, and the last group to train for Space Shuttle flights.

2006
March 30 – Virgin Galactic Astronaut Pilots Group – UK


 * Steve Johnson, Alistair Hoy, David MacKay, Alex Tai

September 4 – Angkasawan Group – Malaysia


 * Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Faiz Khaleed, Siva Vanajah, Mohammed Faiz Kamaludin


 * Note: In 2006, four Malaysians were chosen to train for a flight to the International Space Station through the Angkasawan program. Sheikh Muszaphar became the first Malaysian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz TMA-11.

October 11 – TsPK-14/RKKE-16 Cosmonaut Group – Russia


 * TsPK: Aleksandr Misurkin, Oleg Novitskiy, Aleksey Ovchinin, Maksim Ponomaryov, Sergey Ryzhikov
 * RKKE: Yelena Serova, Nikolai Tikhonov

December 25 – Korean Astronaut Program Group


 * Yi So-yeon, Ko San


 * Note: Ko San was chosen as the prime candidate over Yi So-yeon in September 2007. Yi So-yeon became prime candidate in March 2008.

2008
July – Virgin Galactic Astronaut Pilots Group – UK


 * Robert Bendall, Rich Dancaster, Brad Lambert

2009
February 25 – JAXA Group – Japan


 * Takuya Onishi, Kimiya Yui

May 13 – CSA Group – Canada


 * Jeremy Hansen, David Saint-Jacques

May 20 – ESA Group – The Shenanigans – ESA


 * Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy), Alexander Gerst (Germany), Andreas Mogensen (Denmark), Luca Parmitano (Italy), Timothy Peake (United Kingdom), Thomas Pesquet (France)

June 29 – NASA Group 20 – Chumps – USA


 * Mission Specialists: Serena M. Auñón, Jeanette J. Epps, Jack D. Fischer, Michael S. Hopkins, Kjell N. Lindgren, Kathleen (Kate) Rubins, Scott D. Tingle, Mark T. Vande Hei, Gregory R. (Reid) Wiseman
 * International Mission Specialists: Jeremy Hansen (Canada), Norishige Kanai (Japan), Takuya Onishi (Japan), David Saint-Jacques (Canada), Kimiya Yui (Japan)


 * Note: NASA selected the nine members of Group 20 from over 3,500 applicants. The NASA candidates were announced in June, the international astronauts were added later that year. This was the first group of astronauts chosen for the post-Space Shuttle era, and were not trained to fly the Shuttle. Fisher, Tingle, and Wiseman were selected as pilots, but there is currently no distinction between pilots and non-pilots, all are considered Mission Specialists.

September 8 – JAXA Group – Japan


 * Norishige Kanai

2010
March - Chinese Group 2 – China


 * Cai Xuzhe, Chen Dong, Liu Yang, Tang Hongbo, Wang Yaping, Ye Guangfu, Zhang Lu

April 12 - Astronauts4Hire – Group 1


 * Jim Crowell, Bruce Davis, Kristine Ferrone, Amnon Govrin, Chad Healy, Ryan Kobrick, Joseph Palaia, Luís Saraiva, Brian Shiro, Laura Stiles, Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto

June 7 - Astronauts4Hire – Group 2


 * Ben Corbin, José Miguel Hurtado, Jr, Jason Reimuller, Todd Romberger, Erik Seedhouse, Alli Taylor

October 12 – TsPK-15/RKKE-17 Cosmonaut Group – Russia
 * TsPK: Aleksey Khomenchuk, Denis Matveev, Sergey Valer'evich Prokopiev
 * RKKE: Andrey Babkin, Ivan Vagner, Sergey Kud'-Sverchkov, Svyatoslav Morozov

2011
'''February 28 - Astronauts4Hire – Group 3


 * Christopher Altman, Jon-Erik Dahlin, Melania Guerra, Mindy Howard, Kris Lehnhardt, Abhishek Tripathi, Cosan Unuvar, Pavel Zagadailov, Luis Zea

October 26 – Virgin Galactic Astronaut Pilots Group – UK


 * Keith Colmer

2012
October 30 – TsPK- Addition Group – Russia


 * Finalists: Oleg Blinov, Nikolay Chub, Piotr Dubrov, Andrey Fediaev, Ignat Ignatov, Anna Kikina, Sergei Korsakov, Dmitriy Petelin

2013
May 8 - Virgin Galactic Astronaut Pilots Group – UK


 * Frederick W. Sturckow (former NASA astronaut), Michael “Sooch” Masucci

June 3 - Astronauts4Hire – Group 4


 * David Ballinger, Jessica Cherry, Michael Gallagher, Jamie Guined, Tanya Markow-Estes, Aaron Persad

June 17 – NASA Group 21 – 8-Balls – USA


 * Josh A. Cassada, Victor J. Glover, Tyler N. Hague, Christina M. Hammock, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Anne C. McClain, Jessica U. Meir, Andrew R. Morgan

'December 5 – AXE Apollo Space Academy winners on a sub-orbital space flight - Future Astronauts''


 * Patrick Carney (USA), Theo Abbaci-Nel (Canada), Marco Gorrasi (Brazil), Oliver Knight (UK), Felix Stach (DACH), Cyril Garnier (France), Jordi Ollebeck (Netherlands), Eduardo Luruena (Spain), Robert Vokal (Slovakia), Denis Efremov (Russia), Halil Kayıkçı (Turkey), Omar Samra (Egypt), Vinay Singh (India), Takanobu Yoneya (Japan), Rizman Adhi Nugraha (Indonesia), Pirada Techavijit (Thailand), Thanh Long Vu (Vietnam), Tim Gibson (Australia), Hamish Fagg (New Zealand),Tale Sundlisæter (Norway), Mandlenkosi Maseko (South Africa), Qing Guo (China), Daniel Angelo “Chino” Roque (Philippnes)

Comments
Same companies - the contenders for the Ansari X PRIZE for the first non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft – named his spacecraft pilots, 2003 – 2004:


 * the head of company Starchaser Industries Steve Bennett (United Kingdom), and astronaut Matt Shewbridge; former NASA astronauts – American: John Bennett Herrington (Pioneer Rocketplane), Richard Searfoss (XCOR Aerospace); pilot Dick Rutan (XCOR Aerospace); Canadian engineer Brian Feeney (da Vinci Project); a veteran Wally Funk from Mercury 13 (Interorbital Systems) ua.

From a variety of sources (Magazine Wired, Getty Images, Jim Sugar Photography), there are also Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic other pilot or astronaut names: Mike Alsbury, Rob Bendall (Canada), Richard Branson, Peter Kalogiannis, Niki Lauda (Austria), Brian Maisler, Clint Nichols, Wes Persall, Burt Rutan, Peter Seiffert, Peter Siebold, Mark Stucky.

SpaceX already employs former NASA astronauts Ken Bowersox and Garrett Reisman, and Boeing plans to hire some soon.

The new Teachers in Space Project began in 2005. In 2012, the United States Rocket Academy announced that the program was expanding to include a broader range of participants and was renamed Citizens in Space:

For its first phase, Citizens in Space will be selecting and training 10 citizen astronaut candidates to fly as payload operators. Four astronaut candidates already in training ( Maureen Adams, Steve Heck, Michael Johnson, and Edward Wright). Earlier it was mentioned as a citizen-astronaut candidate to the informal educator and aerospace historian Gregory Kennedy.

Founders of Copenhagen Suborbitals (2008, Denmark) are Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen. If successful, Denmark will be the fourth nation to launch humans above the Kármán line. Peter Madsen is scheduled for the first flight, then Kristian von Bengtson will attempt a low earth orbit mission.

A4H. Astronauts for Hire is a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed in April 2010 to recruit and train qualified scientists and engineers for the rigors of spaceflight. Commonly referred to as “Astronauts4Hire” or just “A4H”, the organization conducts a range of activities related to commercial astronaut workforce development. A4H’s principal service is to train its members as professional astronaut candidates who can assist researchers, payload developers, and spaceflight providers with mission planning and operations support. June 3, 2013 Astronauts for Hire (A4H) proudly announces the selection of its fourth group of commercial scientist-astronaut candidates.

AXE is creating 9 January 2013 the AXE Apollo Space Academy (A.A.S.A) with space futurist and one of the first men to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. Beginning this day, by joining A.A.S.A at AXEApollo.com, guys and girls will have a chance to compete for one of 22 tickets to travel to space on a flight with international space agency, Space Expedition Corporation (SXC). The spaceship will be XCOR Aerospace Lynx. A careful selection result of the 5. December 2013 were selected 23 candidates for the flight, which will take place in 2014 or 2015 year.

A non-profit organization Mars One plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2023. The private spaceflight project is led by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who announced plans for the Mars One mission in May 2012. Mars One astronaut selection announcement in 19 April 2013 and starts its search for the first humans on Mars 22 April 2013. August 2013 to fly to Mars had applied for more than 200,000 people. Flights are provided without returning to Earth.

The very first, a private firm that tried to build a suborbital space rocket was Truax Engineering, Inc. At various times to beginning of the 1990th, one by one, trained for the first flight: Ronald Beller, Martin Yahn, Ray Upton, Daniel J. Correa and Fell Peters. The project stalled for lack of money.