- William Orbit
William Orbit (born on 15 December, 1956 as William Mark Wainwright in Shoreditch, Hackney) is an English musician and record producer, perhaps best known to most for his work on Madonna's album "Ray of Light", which received four Grammy Awards. He has also co-produced several unreleased Madonna songs originally recorded for other albums that were never used. In addition, he produced "13" by Blur, and remixed some of the songs on the album. - John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio) is an American astronaut, Marine Corps fighter pilot, ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, and politician. He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7. He is the oldest living person to have flown in space when, at the age of 77 in 1998, flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95. - Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (December 27 1571 - November 15 1630) was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and a key figure in the 17th century astronomical revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works "Astronomia nova", "Harmonices Mundi", and "Epitome of Copernican Astronomy". - Eugene Cernan
Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a former American astronaut of Czech and Slovak ancestry. He has been into space three times: as co-pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972. In that final lunar landing mission, Cernan became "the last man on the moon" since he was the last to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module during its third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA). - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (September 19, 1935) was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautic theory who spent most of his life in a log house on the outskirts of Kaluga, about 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Moscow. - Jeffrey Williams
Jeffrey Nels Williams (born 18 January 1958) is an American astronaut and veteran of two space flights. Williams was raised in Winter, Wisconsin and earned an engineering degree from the U.S. Military Academy, receiving his commission in the United States Army. Williams served with the army at Johnson Space Center from 1987 to 1992 before training as a test pilot. - John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams (June 5 1819 - January 21, 1892), was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position of Neptune, using only mathematics. The calculations were made to explain discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of Kepler and Newton. At the same time, but unknown to each other, the same calculations were made by Urbain Le Verrier. - Karl Schwarzschild
Karl Schwarzschild was a German physicist and astronomer. He is also the father of astrophysicist Martin Schwarzschild. He was born in Frankfurt am Main. He was something of a child prodigy and had a paper on orbits published when he was only sixteen. He studied at Strasbourg and Munich, obtaining his doctorate in 1896 for a work on Jules Henri Poincaré's theories. From 1897, he worked as assistant at the Kuffner Sternwarte (Observatory) in Vienna, … - Kate Wilhelm
Kate Wilhelm (born June 8, 1928) (nee Katie Gertrude Meredith) is a writer whose work has included science fiction, mysteries, and fantasy. She was born in Toledo, Ohio. Her work has been published in "Quark (the anthology series)", "Orbit (the anthology series)", "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", "Locus", "Amazing Stories", "Asimov's Science Fiction", "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine", … - Victor Rasuk
Born in Harlem and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhatten nineteen-year old Victor Rasuk started acting at the age of 13. He graduated in January 2003 from the Professional Performing Arts High School and has appeared in several plays and short films including the off-off Broadway play WHITE BOY. In 1999, Rasuk starred in Peter Sollett 's short film titled FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING. - Laika
Laika (from Russian: Лайка, a breed of dog, literally: "Barker") was a Russian space dog that became the first living creature from Earth to enter orbit. At one time a stray wandering the streets of Moscow, she was selected from an animal shelter. Originally named Kudryavka, she was renamed Laika after her breed type. - Joan D. Vinge
Joan D. Vinge (born 2 April 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American science fiction author. She is known for her Hugo Award-winning novel "The Snow Queen", its sequels, and her series about the telepath named Cat. Vinge studied art in college, but eventually changed to a major in anthropology, and received a B.A. degree from San Diego State University in 1971. Her first published story, "Tin Soldier", a novelette, appeared in "Orbit 14" in 1974. - Johann Elert Bode
Johann Elert Bode (January 19, 1747 - November 23, 1826) was a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularization of the Titius-Bode law as well as his works to determine the orbit of Uranus, for which he also suggested the name. He is also credited with the discovery of Bode's Galaxy (M81). - Apollonius Of Perga
Apollonius of Perga [Pergaeus was a Greek geometer and astronomer, of the Alexandrian school, noted for his writings on conic sections. His innovative methodology and terminology, especially in the field of conics, influenced many later scholars including Ptolemy, Francesco Maurolico, Isaac Newton, and René Descartes. It was Apollonius who gave the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola the names by which we know them. - James Croll
James Croll (2 January 1821 - 15 December 1890) was a 19th century Scottish scientist who developed a theory of climate change based on changes in the earth's orbit. - Heinrich Schwabe
Samuel Heinrich Schwabe (October 25, 1789-April 11, 1875) a German astronomer remembered for his work on sunspots. Schwabe was born at Dessau. At first an apothecary, he turned his attention to astronomy, and in 1826 commenced his observations on sunspots. Schwabe was trying to discover a new planet inside the orbit of Mercury which was tentatively called Vulcan. Because of the proximity to the Sun, it would have been very difficult to observe Vulcan, … - Walter Hohmann
Walter Hohmann (March 18 1880 - March 11 1945) was a German engineer who made an important contribution to the understanding of orbital dynamics. In a book published in 1925 (written in 1916), Hohmann demonstrated a very fuel-efficient path to move a spacecraft between two different orbits, now called a Hohmann transfer orbit. Hohmann was born in Hardheim, the son of a doctor. Whilst a boy, he lived with his family in Port Elizabeth, South Africa for a time, … - Yuri Artsutanov
Yuri N. Artsutanov (1929-) is an Russian engineer born in Leningrad. He is known for being one of the pioneers of the idea of space elevator (type of skyhook). In 1960 he wrote an article "V Kosmos na Electrovoze (en. "Into space with the help of an electric locomotive")", where he discussed the concept of the space elevator as an economic, safe and convenient way to access orbit and facilitate space exploration. - Alexis Bouvard
Alexis Bouvard (June 27, 1767 - June 7, 1843) was a French astronomer, born in Contamines, France. Bouvard's achievements included the discovery of eight comets and the compilation of astronomical tables of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. While the former two tables were eminently successful, the latter showed substantial discrepancies with subsequent observations. - Édouard Roche
Édouard Albert Roche was a French scientist, who is best known for his work in the field of celestial mechanics. He gave his name to the concepts of the Roche sphere, Roche limit and Roche lobe. He was born in Montpellier, and studied at the University of Montpellier, later becoming a professor at the same institution, where he served in the Faculté des Sciences starting in 1849. - Johann Heinrich Lambert
Johann Heinrich Lambert, was a German mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was born in Mülhausen (now Mulhouse, Alsace, France). His father was a poor tailor, so Johann had to struggle to gain an education. He first worked as a clerk in an ironworks, then gained a position in a newspaper office. The editor recommended him as a private tutor to a family, which gave him access to a good library and provided enough leisure time in which to explore it. - Bertalan Farkas
Bertalan Farkas was the first Hungarian cosmonaut and the first Esperantist in space. He is currently the president of Airlines Service and Trade. With Charles Simonyi's travel, Farkas is no longer the only Hungarian who has been to space. Born in Gyulaháza, he graduated from the George Kilián Aeronautical College in Szolnok in 1969. He then attended the Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute in the Soviet Union, from where he graduated in 1971. - Eleanor F. Helin
Eleanor Francis Helin is an American astronomer, who retired in 2002. She was principal investigator of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Some sources give her name as Eleanor Kay Helin. She has discovered or co-discovered 872 asteroids, including the first two Aten asteroids: 2062 Aten and 2100 Ra-Shalom; the Apollo asteroids 4660 Nereus, … - George William Hill
George William Hill (March 3, 1838 - April 16, 1914), was a U.S. astronomer and mathematician. Hill was born in New York City, New York, and moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from Rutgers University in 1859. From 1861, he worked at the Nautical Almanac Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work focused on the mathematics describing the three-body problem, later the four-body problem, … - Stepan Chapman
Stepan Chapman (born 1951 in Chicago) is a writer of speculative fiction and fabulation. He might be best known for the Philip K. Dick Award winning novel The Troika. He was raised in Chicago and then studied theatre at the University of Michigan. His first published work was a story to "Analog Science Fiction and Fact" in 1969. As a rule his work is more fable-like in tone and surreal than is common for that magazine. - Milutin Milanković
Milutin Milanković (May 28, 1879, Dalj near Osijek, Austria-Hungary (now in Croatia) – December 12 1958, Belgrade, Serbia) was a Serbian civil engineer and geophysicist, best known for his theory of ice ages, relating variations of the Earth's orbit and long-term climate change, now known as Milankovitch cycles. - Georgi Ivanov
Georgi Ivanov (born Georgi Kakalov, born July 2, 1940) is the first Bulgarian cosmonaut. He was a Member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria in 1990. Born in Lovech, Georgi Kakalov attended the Military Air-force School in Dolna Mitropolia. After completing the 5-year education, he served in the Bulgarian National Army as a military pilot. A few years later he became an instructor and head of a division. - Adrien Auzout
Adrien Auzout was a French astronomer. He was born in Rouen, France, the son of a clerk in the court of Rouen. His educational background is unknown. In 1664-1665 he made observations of comets, and argued in favor of their following elliptical or parabolic orbits. (In this he was opposed by his rival Johannes Hevelius.) Adrien was briefly a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences from 1666 to 1668, and a founding member of the French Royal Obseratory. - Desmond King-Hele
Desmond George King-Hele (born 1927) is a British physicist. He was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1971 for his work on the geophysical application of the study of the orbits of artificial satellites. He is the author of "Observing Earth Satellites", "Satellites and Scientific Research", "Theory of Satellite Orbits in an Atmosphere", "Shelley: His Thought and Work", … - Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez
Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez was the first Cuban cosmonaut and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the United States to travel in outer space. He was also the first Hispanophone and first person of African ancestry in space. Born in Guantánamo, Tamayo graduated from the Cuban Air Force Academy and became a pilot in the Cuban Air Defense Force. He was selected as part of the Soviet Union's seventh Intercosmos program on March 1, 1978. - Seth Barnes Nicholson
Seth Barnes Nicholson was an American astronomer. Nicholson was born in Springfield, Illinois and was raised in rural Illinois. He was educated at Drake University where he became interested in astronomy. In 1914, at the University of California's Lick Observatory, while observing the recently-discovered Jupiter moon Pasiphaë, he discovered a new one: Sinope, whose orbit he computed for his Ph.D. thesis in 1915. He spent his entire career at Mount Wilson Observatory, … - William Wrigley III
William Wrigley III (January 21, 1933 Chicago - March 8, 1999 Chicago) was President of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, founded by his grandfather William Wrigley, Jr. from 1961 until his death. His father P.K. Wrigley preceded him as president. He was succeeded by his son William Wrigley, Jr. II as President and CEO. He inherited ownership of the Chicago Cubs in 1977 and sold the team to the Chicago Tribune in 1981. - Roger Joseph Boscovich
Roger Joseph (Ruggero Giuseppe) Boscovich (May 18, 1711 - February 13, 1787) was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, and Jesuit from Ragusa (then an independent state, today Dubrovnik in Croatia) who later lived in England, France and Italy. He is famous for his atomic theory, given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics. - Lewis Boss
Lewis Boss (1846-1912) was an American astronomer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1870 he graduated from Dartmouth College, then went to work as a clerk for the U.S. Government. He served as an assistant astronomer for a government expedition to survey the U.S-Canadian border. In 1876 he became the directory of the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York. He became editor of the "Astronomical Journal" in 1909, but responsibility passed to his son, … - George Phillips Bond
George Phillips Bond (May 20, 1825 - February 17, 1865) was an American astronomer. He was the son of William Cranch Bond. Some sources give his year of birth as 1826. His early interest was in nature and birds, but after his elder brother William Cranch Bond Jr. died, he felt obliged to follow his father into the field of astronomy. He succeeded his father as director of Harvard College Observatory from 1859 until his death. - Evelyn Boyd Granville
Evelyn Boyd Granville (born May 1 1924) was the second African-American woman in the U.S. to receive a PhD in mathematics. (The first was Euphemia Haynes who was awarded her PhD from Catholic University in 1943.) She was born and raised in Washington DC. She attended Smith College on scholarship where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with honors in mathematics in 1943. She went on to acquire PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1949. - Erik Prosperin
Erik Prosperin (1739-1803) was a Swedish astronomer. He was lecturer in Mathematics and Physics at Uppsala University in 1767, professor of observational astronomy (Observator) in 1773-1796 and professor of Astronomy in 1797-1798. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) in Stockholm in 1771 and member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala in 1774 (secretary from 1786 onwards). He was a famous calculator of orbits: comets, planets and their satellites. - Johann von Lamont
Johann von Lamont (December 13,1805 - August 6,1879) was a Scottish-German astronomer and physicist. He was born in Inverey, Scotland and moved to Ratisbon, Germany in 1817 to study at the local seminary. He began to work in astronomy and joined the Bogenhausen Observatory, became its director in 1835 and a professor of astronomy in 1852 at Munich University. At the observatory he undertook the task of creating a star catalog that had about 35,000 entries. - Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa
Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa was the first Mongolian cosmonaut and the second Asian in space. He was Mongolia's defense minister from 2000 to 2004. Born in Gurvanbulag, Mongolia, Gürragchaa studied in Ulan Bator to become an aerospace engineer. He then joined the air force, rising to the rank of Major General. He was selected as part of the eighth international programme for Intercosmos on March 1, 1978. - Walter Grotrian
Walter Robert Wilhelm Grotrian was a German astronomer and astrophysicist. He discovered zodiacal dust (the cause of zodiacal light) in 1934 by studying the spectrum of the solar corona. The dust is an extension of the solar corona beyond Earth's orbit that reflects sunlight, which produces a faint illumination (zodiacal light) that can sometimes be seen shortly before sunrise or soon after sunset.
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