Early Period
Fictional astronauts as imagined before the Space Age.
| Name(s) | Appeared in | Program / Mission / Spaceship | Fictional date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stud. astr. Friede Velten Wolf Helius Hans Windegger Professor Georg Manfeldt |
Woman in the Moon (1929), silent film | Friede | Contemporary? |
| First film depiction of a moon-rocket and of a countdown. Checkboard design and Frau-im-Mond logo later to appear on A4 rockets. | |||
| Lewis Taine (US), Pierre Leduc (France), James Richards (UK), Victor Hassell (UK), Arnold Clinton (Australia) |
Prelude to Space (1947), novel | Prometheus Alpha/Beta | 1978 |
| Candidates for the first manned mission to the moon. | |||
| Wilson, Louis Garnett |
The Sentinel (1948), short story | Unknown | 1996 |
| Explorers who discover something remarkable on the shores of the Sea of Crises. | |||
| Karl Eckstrom Lisa Van Horn Floyd Graham, Col. Harry Chamberlain William Corrigan, Maj. |
Rocketship X-M (1950), film | X-M ("eXpedition Moon") | Near Future |
| Astronauts on a moon rocket that "accidentally" lands on Mars. | |||
| Jim Barnes Dr. Charles Cargraves Thayer, Gen. Joe Sweeney |
Destination Moon (1950), film | Luna | Near Future |
| Astronauts on a nuclear rocket to the moon. | |||
| Daniel MacGregor Dare, Col., Albert Fitzwilliam Digby |
Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future (1950–1967), comic | Anastasia | 1996+ |
| Astronaut in Earth's Interplanetary Spacefleet, travelled to Venus, Mercury, Saturn. | |||
| Farley (Last name not given) | The Rocket of 1955 (1951?), short story | Unknown | 1955 |
| Mars bound astronaut, who discovers too late that his spacecraft is the product of a gigantic confidence trick, killed when it explodes during takeoff. | |||
| Dr. Ludwig Rechenheim, Charles Greene, Victor Carroon |
The Quatermass Experiment (1953), TV | Experimental Rocket | Unknown |
| Astronauts of the British Experimental Rocket Group. Crew of the first manned space mission, only Victor Carroon survives the flight. | |||
| Andrew "Jet" Morgan, Captain Lemuel Barnet Stephen Mitchell "Doc" Matthews |
Journey Into Space (1953–5), radio | Operation Luna | 1965+ |
| British Commonwealth astronauts on a trip to the Moon and beyond. | |||
| Hugh Allenby. Commander, Burton. Pilot, Janus. Photographer, Gonzales. Botanist, Randolph. Biologist, Unnamed. Mineralogist |
The Holes around Mars (1954), short story | Mars 1 | Unknown |
| Crew of the first manned expedition to Mars. They discover that the planet is orbited at very low altitude by a Micro black hole. | |||
| Prof. Bernard Quatermass, Dr. Leo Pugh |
Quatermass II (1955), TV | Experimental Rocket | Near Future |
| Scientists of the British Experimental Rocket Group. Go into space in an attempt to use a faulty nuclear rocket to blow up an alien asteroid/spacecraft directing a covert invasion of Earth. | |||
| Barney Merritt, Capt. Samuel T. Merritt, Gen. Mahoney, Sgt. Jackie Siegle |
Conquest of Space (1955), film | Unknown | Near Future |
| Astronauts on a mission to Mars. | |||
| Chris Godfrey (UK), Serge Smyslov (USSR), Morrey Kant (USA), Tony Hale (UK) |
Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A. series (1957–79), juvenile novels | Numerous, including Luna 1, Columbus, Lenin and Phoenix | Near contemporary |
| British astronaut who makes the first manned spaceflight, launching from Woomera, and international colleagues who later join him in the "United Nations Exploration Agency" for missions to the Moon and all planets in the solar system. | |||
| Junius Robb, Capt. (USAF), Hamston, Kingsley, Farnsworth, Anderson |
Moon Glow (1958), short story | Project Ajax(?) Ajax XX |
Near future |
| First Americans to land on the moon. | |||
| Dan Prescott, Lt. | First Man into Space (1959), film | Y-13 spaceplane | Near future |
| Air Force Space Command pilot flies plane into space, returns as monster. | |||
| Mike Ferris (USAF) | The Twilight Zone Where Is Everybody? (1959), TV |
N/A | Contemporary |
| Air Force astronaut trainee hallucinates himself in empty town during isolation experiment. | |||
Read more about this topic: List Of Fictional Astronauts
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or period:
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)