Can you help connect a space traveller? (Stage 1)

+18 votes
1.3k views

A while ago, I made a suggestion that we could do with some more variety in our Relationship Finder Quick Links page. One of the suggestions that I made was letting people check their connections to people who have gone into space. (After all, there aren't that many people who have done that yet, and most of them are still alive, so the list shouldn't be too unwieldy.)

Unfortunately, not all of the people who have gone to space (and since died) even have profiles on WikiTree, and most of the cosmonauts/astronauts/taikonauts who do have WikiTree profiles aren't connected to the main tree.  Can you help to connect them?  I've made a list of the cosmonauts/astronauts/taikonauts who need to be connected to the main tree below.

If you can add sources, photos, or biographies, build out the family trees, or improve the profiles of space travellers in any other ways, so much the better! Once you get a space traveller connected (or added), please post an answer here.

(If you want to add profiles for those cosmonauts/astronauts/taikonauts who don't have WikiTree profiles yet, Wikipedia has a List of space travellers by name, which makes it easier finding them. [Hint: look for birth and death years in brackets as a quick way of finding the ones who are deceased.])

Greg

in Requests for Project Volunteers by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (664k points)
edited by Greg Slade
I have no idea who made the connections, or when, but Gene Cernan and James Irwin are now showing as connected.

Revision:

I have removed the Soviet cosmonauts from this list (since there are so few people on WikiTree who can read Slavic languages), added new cosmonauts who have had profiles created since I originally posted this challenge (thank you, Antonia!), and spun them off into a separate "Can you help connect a cosmonaut?" challenge.

That reduces the number of people in this challenge to 34, and increases the percentage complete to 64.7%.

Okay, somebody connected Jack Swigert. Thank you!

That means that 23/34 profiles are now connected, which pushes this challenge to 67.6% complete.

Okay, with adding Sigmund Jähn to the list, this challenge is currently in 4th place, with 65.7%. In terms of people still to connect, it's in 16th place, with 12.

I got Michael Phillip Anderson connected this month.

Thank you, Emma!

This challenge was pretty unfair when I first posted it. It was much longer than the usual for these challenges, which has made it particularly hard to finish. Even after spinning out 20 cosmonauts into a separate challenge, there were still 35 people left to connect, which is two-and-a-half times as many as my standard challenge, which is 14. 

At the same time, I have been reminded of a bunch of people whom I missed when I first posted this challenge, but adding them into an already oversized challenge would have been way too silly, even for me.

Therefore, I have taken the remaining unconnected people out of this challenge, added them to the "new" astronauts, and ended up with a list of exactly 14 people. (And isn't that handy?) So, that leases 27 space travellers whose profiles you have already connected to the main tree, or very nearly twice as many as the usual challenge. So I think it's entirely fair to regard this challenge as completed, and more than completed, and launch a new challenge.

This challenge has been completed by the wonderful WikiTreers taking part.

My thanks and congratulations to all of you who have helped to connect these people. You are awesome. 

And, for those of you who have worked on this challenge, if you want to commemorate the occasion, this is an option:

Completed challenge T-shirt design

I have made this design available on shirts, mugs, mouse pads, buttons, and hats through the WikiTree Love shop on CafePress. But please only order one if you worked on this challenge. (Or if you want to give one to somebody who worked on this challenge.) I do want to try to keep them as "exclusives" for the people who have helped out WikiTree in this way.

29 Answers

+9 votes
I would love to help, but what if their parents are still living?  

Thanks!  All the best, Janet
by Janet Clifton G2G6 Mach 6 (61.1k points)
There may be cases where the parents are still alive, but it kind of shocked me how many Mercury, Gemini, and even Apollo astronauts aren't connected. Those projects were long enough ago that I'd be astonished if the astronaut's parents were still alive.
+10 votes

I think I have connected Pete Conrad  through his great great grandmother, Elizabeth Abbott.

by Rick San Soucie G2G6 Mach 3 (30.6k points)
edited by Rick San Soucie

Good job, Rick! yes

+11 votes

Given that the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 just occurred and the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 will occur this summer, I think this is a great project!

Is anyone going to SpaceFest, August 8 – 11, 2019. JW Marriott at Starr Pass, Tucson, Arizona?  We went last summer and may go this year.  Lots of fun for space fans!  

by Kitty Smith G2G6 Pilot (634k points)

Huh. A space travellers project would be a good idea, although it should probably be a sub-project of the Notables Project.

The goal would be to add, source, add categories, and eventually connect people who were involved in humanity's exploration of space, so probably people like Robert Goddard would fall under the project, as well as actual space travellers.

I am far too scattered to manage such a project, but I'd certainly be happy to contribute from time to time.

+11 votes

I found another connection.

Dick Scobee

by Rick San Soucie G2G6 Mach 3 (30.6k points)
You are rocking this! (Or maybe I should say, "rocketing this"?)
+9 votes

I have found another astronaut connection.

Gordo Cooper

by Rick San Soucie G2G6 Mach 3 (30.6k points)

You are a connecting machine! yes

+8 votes
So is Polina Gagarina a niece or grand-niece of Yuri Gagarin, or was Glamour just playing on the same last name?

http://gagarina.com/news/polina-gagarina-stala-pevitsey-goda-po-versii-zhurnala-glamour/
by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (664k points)
I checked her Wikipedia pages (the English and French ones) and neither mentions any family link. Just homonyms, apparently.

Gagarin had three siblings and a wife who might perhaps be added by someone who understands this (his two daughters would be alive, so that is out), but I don't see that it would help much for his connection.

I went to Yuri's Russian Wikipedia entry, and then read it through Google translate. There is a lot more information about his family there, and a bunch of them have their own entries, so as I have time, I'm planning to build out his tree to the limits of what I can find.

Some info I found ...

https://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-family-he-left-behind-516092/  (5 pages)
Yuri Gagarin's father Alexei Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin's niece Natalia Gagarina
Yuri Gagarin's niece Tamara Filatova

https://www.revolvy.com/page/Yuri-Gagarin
with lots of links for further research

Yuri Gagarin married on 7 Nov 1957 to 1968 to Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva

Yuri Gagarin's 2 daughters ...
- Yelena Yurievna Gagarina is an art historian who has worked as the Director-General of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001.
- Galina Yurievna Gagarina is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.

2004 book "Two Sides of the Moon" by Alexey Leonov

There are 2 other Gagarin lines (including a princely line) which I do NOT find being connected to him.

Greg, as you work on his tree, can you include the English translation of names to help others research them. Thanks
+9 votes

Ed White should show connected on Thursday.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)
He is indeed! Good job!
+9 votes

Charles Brady

I am ready to hook him up. but I have to wait until the profile manger gives permission, since it is someone born in the 1890s that is not an open public profile.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

He's showing as connected now! yes

+8 votes
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roosa-308  will show as connected tomorrow.
by S Stevenson G2G6 Pilot (243k points)

He is! yes

+10 votes

Charles Veach will show connected on Saturday morning.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

He is showing as connected! yes

+9 votes

I'm not sure if Mary Louise Fredlock is Michael Philip Anderson's grandmother, but here is her profile (she is unconnected) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fredlock-8

* The Fredlock's were German

Edit: Changed Wife's name as she might be living

by A. C. Raper G2G6 Mach 5 (52.0k points)
edited by A. C. Raper
+8 votes

Stanley David Griggs should show as connected tomorrow.

by Rick San Soucie G2G6 Mach 3 (30.6k points)

Yes, he is. smiley

+8 votes

Sonny Carter will show connected on Saturday morning.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

Yes, he does! yes

+8 votes

David M. Brown might show connected on Saturday or Sunday morning.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

He's showing as connected now! yes

+8 votes

David M Walker  is now connected.

by Rick San Soucie G2G6 Mach 3 (30.6k points)

Yes, he is! smiley

+8 votes

C. Gordon Fullerton

Hoping he will show connected on Sunday morning.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

Your hope has been fulfilled! wink

+7 votes

Richard Gordon will show connected on monday morning.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)

He did! smiley

+8 votes

Henry Hartsfield will show up connected soon.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)
He is
+8 votes

Karl Henize will be connected soon.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)
He is
+8 votes

Alan Pointdexter will show connected soon.

by N Gauthier G2G6 Pilot (286k points)
He is

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