Help us find and improve next week's Connection Finder profiles: Astronauts [closed]

+15 votes
738 views

Next week's Example Profile in the Connection Finder will be Gus Grissom, accomplished astronaut killed in the Apollo 1 disaster.

We're looking for profiles of other astronauts to feature alongside him. Here are a few of the people we're getting started on:

Can you help with these profiles, or expand their families? Adding relatives in any direction helps with connections. Every missing relative you add will make our connections to them closer.

Who else should we feature? Do they need a profile?

All profiles we feature need a good biography and a connection to the big tree. We also want each one to have an image, and the image needs to have proper source attribution explaining why it's in the public domain or why we have the right to display it.

We can't feature everyone mentioned (we only have room for eight per week), but if we don't feature a profile you work on, we may use it sometime in the future. And, of course, all contributions help improve our shared tree.

We'll make a final decision on which ones to feature early next week.

Please reply here with what you're working on so that we don't duplicate our efforts. Thank you!

To help us plan future themes, see the 2021 Example Profile Plans post here.

Edited to add: The Astronauts theme will be held for several weeks as current events have rearranged the EPOW schedule.

WikiTree profile: Virgil Grissom
closed with the note: Feature: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1235642/which-astronaut-are-you-most-closely-connected-to
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (751k points)
closed by Abby Glann
It looks like Nicolas LaPointe managed to connect Ellison Onizuka.
I corrected the LNAB on Ilan Ramon and added his father. Not sure if there's any easy connections in his future, but it does appear there is more information on his family and since his parents both went through various stages of WW II related persecution, maybe we might get some assistance from some German researchers or the Holocaust team who might find something that could help.

Bumping this so people will stop posting in last September's thread. cheeky

To the STARS! 

And the featured profile will be Michael Collins, not Gus Grissom (who will still be in the lineup, though?)

14 Answers

+14 votes

I'd like to see Michael Philip Anderson featured. 

It would also be nice to see Sally Ride, if her profile could be opened and cleaned up a bit.

There are many other possibilities, that can be found in the NASA Astronauts category and its sub-categories. 

by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (578k points)
Sally's green locked and even Notables does not have access. I'll ask to be added, even if it's just to adjust the template to a sticker, which is an error on the Notables side.
Thanks, Scott. I was aware that the Notables project was not (could not be) involved in the profile. There is another problem with Laurel Clark, though she is connected and the profile is open, her ancestry cannot be expanded (it's not about the Notables project).
I opened Sally.
Thanks Abby. The biography's been updated.
+13 votes
I hunted through the Soviet Cosmonauts and while I didn't look at all of them, I couldn't find any who were connected to the global tree. I've always struggled with trying to find Russian connections, and was only hoping that someone else had better luck than me. If someone can find one that has a connection, I think it would be wonderful to include them as the Cosmonaut program was one of the key space programs.
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

I looked at Yuri Gagarin, its mostly in Russian and unreadable to me, from wikipedia entries, his younger brother Boris had a daughter that lives in the USA. I checked over on geni and I have no path to Yuri. 

No, Will, Yuri Gagarin's biography is in English, except for names and places, which have Cyrillic spellings first, and then Latin spellings. (That's not the way I would have done it myself.) Just skip over the Cyrillic bits and it's perfectly readable.

thanks
I'll have a look at the Russians when I get the chance as ispeak Russian. I'll find some info.

Ann
I did update some of the cosmonauts adding siblings, parents etc I’ll try to do some more.

Regards,

Ann

Thank you, Ann!

You’re welcome. I’ll go back and do some more. There’s a very good Russian website that covers all nationalities. I believe there might be an English translation. It’s on most of the profiles I updated if you look. It’s full of info. I just added basics but will go back to them.

Regards,

Ann

This is part of the website I’m sure there is some in English but getting late and I’m too tired to search http://www.astronaut.ru/index.htm

Chawla is here as well on the site with names of parents.

If you can’t google translate I’ll look tomorrow

Ann
+13 votes
I really wish we could include Kalpana Chawla.  Aside from the fact that she was an amazing person, it would be nice to see Wikitree reach into India a bit more.

Unfortunately, she may be hard to connect.  Her husband and father are both living.  I can find their names and ages, but not much more.  About her mother, there is even less.
by Steve Ryan G2G6 Mach 8 (86.3k points)

Yes, we're been trying to connect Kalpana Chawla (and nine other astronauts) for over a year now. Maybe this thread will provoke enough interest to see some changes.

It's much more a question of feasability than interest. How many WikiTreers are around with the skill to reaseach Ms. Chawla's ancestors in their geographic area?

Same problem for people like Ilan Ramon really. (Except it's probably even worse with Chawla).
+13 votes

African-American astronauts

Michael Phillip Anderson  (newly connected)

Robert Henry Lawrence Needs connection

Ronald McNair Needs connection

I can work to get the other two connected if needed.

by Emma MacBeath G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
+12 votes

Wubbo Johannes Ockels is a Dutch astronaut, connected, with picture. 

by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (578k points)
Woo - I like that choice! Wish his biography was a bit fuller, but he looks good either way.

There’s other Dutch on this Russian.site

http://www.astronaut.ru/start01.htm

Ann

+11 votes

I just got Christa McAuliffe connected (would she qualify?). 

The profiles for the two men who died in the same disaster as Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Edward White, look good.

by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (578k points)
+8 votes

I'd like to see at least one X-15 pilot on the list. It's always seemed to me that they've been unfairly neglected. Options are:

(There are other X-15 pilots who flew above 50 miles, but most of them aren't connected to the main tree.)
by Greg Slade G2G6 Pilot (695k points)

Walker is on this Russian site

http://www.astronaut.ru/crossroad/03.htm

Ann

+4 votes
I'm thinking Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong should be added to the list. I would like to see their profiles if they are available.
by Eileen Robinson G2G6 Pilot (207k points)
reshown by Eileen Robinson

Buzz is still living, and is, at this time, ineligible.

Michael Collins died recently, however, leaving Buzz as the only one.  Michael has pic, has bio (more of a timeline), is Connected.

Neil Armstrong - has pic, has bio, is Connected.

I just realized that after searching. blush

Well, don't give up.  Depending on the limits of the proposed policy regards opening the profiles of Living Notables, we may soon be able to include them. smiley   Just not yet.

Besides, your post reminded me about Michael.

(I follow Buzz on the book of faces.)

Another good source and not just for cosmonauts is this site

http://www.astronaut.ru/as_rusia/vvs/start.htm

It may be in English as well, I didn’t check. Covers astronauts from all over the world.

Regards,

Ann

+5 votes

You can find astronauts by country on this Russian site which is very comprehensive. Not sure if any pages are in English though but you could use google translate

http://www.astronaut.ru/start01.htm

Regards,

Ann

by Ann Browning G2G6 Mach 7 (78.2k points)
+4 votes
Why not the other two astronauts involved in the Apollo 1 disaster?  Edgar White II and Roger Chaffee.  Unless they've already been done.  Just a suggestion.  Three good men lost their lives that day in a horrible accident.

Debbie
by Debbie Barrett G2G4 (4.7k points)
+5 votes

I had posted this in old thread so will post again.

An extremely comprehensive site but in Russian although might be English pages.

You can find astronauts by country on this Russian site which is very comprehensive. Not sure if any pages are in English though but you could use google translate

http://www.astronaut.ru/start01.htm

Regards,

Ann

by Ann Browning G2G6 Mach 7 (78.2k points)
+5 votes

Onizuka had two children, son and daughter.

Details here if you use google translate should get the information ok

http://www.astronaut.ru/register/514.htm

Ann

by Ann Browning G2G6 Mach 7 (78.2k points)
English Wikipedia (no translation needed) says two daughters .. likely still living, so may not be discussed here.
Correct, my mistake, two daughters and most likely still alive.

Regards,

Ann
+2 votes

Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, commander of the Space Shuttle "Challenger." He was born in my very small town so it was quite inspiring to know that something like becoming an astronaut was really possible for us. Some of his relatives still lived there at the time of the launch so it was very devastating to our community, especially for the teachers that applied to go with him.

by Sharon Bart G2G6 Mach 1 (13.4k points)

Related questions

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...