Survival training

NASA’s first manned space programmes involved landing space capsules in the ocean. Astronauts were trained for surviving on the ocean and also had jungle training.

Centrifuges

To gain experience of high g-forces experienced from high levels of acceleration, trainee astronauts are spun on the end of a long arm that rotates at high speed.

Fitness

Astronauts have to be fit and healthy. Fitness programmes in the early days of space exploration were intensive and involved training in oxygen-deprived environments.

Floating

Astronauts are given the sensation of working in spacesuits in giant water tanks. NASA uses the worlds largest indoor pool-holding shuttle and station mock-ups.

Simulators

Astronauts train for their mission in mock-ups and simulators. These give a realistic impression of the tasks that they will carry out and the living conditions.

• Soyuz 1

Lone cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov perished in 1967 when the parachutes of Soyuz 1 tangled during re-entry following a multitude of problems in orbit.

• Soyuz 5

In 1969 when a module failed to separate, Boris Volynov’s spacecraft re-entered in a spinning ball of fire until it righted itself and crash landed, with Volynov suffering only broken teeth.

• Soyuz 11

In 1971 the Russian Soyuz 11 spacecraft failed to depressurise properly in orbit, killing all three crew members prior to re-entry, the only astronauts to ever die in space.

• Columbia

In 2003 a piece of foam pierced the left wing of Space Shuttle Columbia during launch. Atmospheric gases tore it apart during re-entry, killing the crew of seven.

• Genesis

The sample return capsule of NASA’s unmanned Genesis spacecraft – containing a sample of solar wind – failed to deploy its parachutes during re-entry in 2004 and crashed in the Utah desert.

Cold War
NASA’s first major space programme was Project Mercury, a series of missions conducted at the height of the Cold War to successfully take an astronaut into space.

Zero-G
Project Gemini, dedicated to developing and practising techniques required for long-term space exploration, was the first project to feature American Spacewalks.

Flying solo
The only space programme ever to send an astronaut beyond low-Earth orbit and land on a celestial body was NASA’s Apollo Program, putting man on the moon in 1969.

Disaster
NASA’s Space Shuttle Program was subject to two major disasters, losing both the Challenger and Columbia shuttles as well as the lives of 14 astronauts.

ISS
Costing an estimated 100 billion euros, the International Space Station is the most expensive object ever constructed in the history of human existence.

In December, Britain’s radical entrepreneur Richard Branson unveiled SpaceShipTwo, the custom-made spacecraft set to ferry eager – and rich – space enthusiasts off the planet for a once-in-a-lifetime trip beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Tickets for the excursions, which can accommodate six passengers at a time, will set intrepid astronaut wannabes back an eye-watering $200,000.