The United States lagged, managing only two 15-minute suborbital astronaut flights — only five minutes of weightlessness each time.
A cargo rocket was successfully launched for a flight to the space station last month, clearing the way for the resumption of astronaut flights.
The review involved interviews with 90 astronauts, flight surgeons, NASA officials, flight technicians and staff members working in preflight crew quarters, as well as examination of more than 40,000 mission records, safety reports and other documents.
Beyond the limelight occupied by astronauts, flight directors and former German rocket scientists, the reticent and laconic Mr. Gilruth stood aside when the cheering started, puffing on his pipe.
A steady stream of astronauts, flight controllers, doctors, scientists, engineers and officials cycles through — and many of them want to be taken to see the sights and restaurants of Moscow.
The Earth-based mission control teams for Apollo 8 consisted of astronauts assigned to the support crew, as well as non-astronaut flight directors and their staffs.
Rothenberg and the others on the NRC committee, including engineers, former astronauts, and flight specialists, studied astronaut-staffing contingency plans, taking into account potential retirements, illnesses, and other events that could keep mission-bound astronauts grounded.
Alongside an "atmospheric re-entry demonstrator", an experimental vehicle built by ESA to test future ideas such as an astronaut capsule, flight 503 has room for a 2.5-tonne satellite.
In 1960, Ms. Skelton appeared on the cover of Look magazine, in an astronaut's flight suit, next to the headline: "Should a Girl Be First in Space?" Ms. Skelton, who never grew beyond 5-foot-3 and about 100 pounds, acquired her passion for speed as an 8-year-old redhead perched on her porch in Pensacola, Fla., finding herself riveted by the pilots from the nearby Navy base swooping overhead.
