Those individuals who led advances in both air and space travel are true heroes. They pushed the boundaries of innovation, inspiring us to believe anything is possible.

We’re partnered with the great biographers at Who2 to highlight 52 notable figures in air and space travel in a solitaire game. We hope you enjoy the game and learnings about these heroes below. You can also play with this great deck on our Spider and Freecell games.

52 Heros of Space and Flight

	Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519). Sketched flying machines and parachutes centuries before human flight.
	The Montgolfier Brothers . Created the first hot air balloon that carried humans into the skies (1783).
	Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin (1775–1847). The first woman to make a parachute descent from a balloon (1799).
	Mary Myers (1849-1932). As 'Carlotta, the Lady Aeronaut,' flew four miles high in a balloon (1886)
	The Wright Brothers . Built and flew the first manned, motor-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft (1903).
	Raymonde de Laroche (1882-1919). The first woman to be licensed as a pilot (1910).
	Katherine Stinson (1891-1977). First woman to be a commissioned airmail pilot (1913).
	Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917). Builder of the rigid lighter-than-air craft known as Zeppelins.
	Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932). Brazilian inventor who designed and flew his own heavier-than-air craft (1906).
	Umberto Nobile (1885-1978). Italian engineer who flew over the North Pole in a dirigible (1926).
	Bessie Coleman (1892-1926). The first African-American to be licensed as a pilot (1921).
	Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974). Made the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1927).
	Amelia Earhart (1897-1937). Daring flier who vanished while attempting an around-the-world flight (1937).
	Beryl Markham (1902-1986). Made the first solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west (1936).
	Robert Goddard (1882-1945). Pioneering scientist who launched the first liquid-fueled rocket (1926).
	Chuck Yeager (Born 1923). The first person to fly faster than the speed of sound (1947).
	Jackie Cochran (1906-1980). She led women pilots in WWII and broke the sound barrier in 1953.
	Jerrie Mock (1925-2014). The first woman to fly solo around the world (1964).
	Wernher von Braun (1912-1977). Chief developer of the Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the moon.
	Valentina Tereshkova (Born 1937). The first woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6 (1963)
	Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968). Russia's most famous cosmonaut and the first human in space (1961).
	Laika the Dog (c. 1954-1957). The first animal to orbit the earth, aboard Sputnik 2 (1957)
	Ham the Chimp (1956-1983). The first chimpanzee to fly in space, aboard a Mercury capsule (1961).
	Alexei Leonov (1934-2019). Made the first spacewalk, outside the Soviet craft Vokshod 2 (1965).
	Peggy Whitson (Born 1960). First female commander of the International Space Station (2017).
	John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). As US president, pledged to put humans on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
	Neil Armstrong (1930-2012). Commander of the Apollo 11 mission and the first man on the moon (1969).
	Katherine Johnson (1918-2020). African-American mathematician crucial to NASA missions from 1961 on.
	Alan Shepard (1923-1998). First American in space, on the Mercury Program's Freedom 7 (1961).
	John Glenn (1921-2016). First American to orbit the earth, aboard Friendship 9 (1962).
	Michael Collins (Born 1930). Pilot of the Apollo 11 orbiting command module, Columbia (1969).
	Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (Born 1930). Apollo 11 astronaut and second man to walk on the moon (1969).
	John Young (1930-2018).. Apollo astronaut who also piloted the first Space Shuttle (1981).
	Guion Bluford (Born 1942). First African-American in space, on the shuttle Challenger (1983).
	Mae Jemison (Born 1956). First African-American woman in space, on the shuttle Endeavor (1992).
	Sally Ride (1951-2012). First American woman in space, at only 32 years old (1983).
	Eileen Collins (Born 1956). First woman to be Space Shuttle pilot (1995) and commander (1999).
	Yang Liwei (Born 1965). China's first man in space, aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft (2003).
	Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (1930-1999). Commander of the Apollo 12 mission and third man on the moon (1969).
	Eugene "Gene" Cernan (1934-2017). Commander of the Apollo 17 mission and the last man on the moon.
	Dick Rutan (Born 1938). Flew Voyager nonstop around the world in 9 days (1986, with Jenna Yeager).
	Harriet Quimby (1875-1912). American pilot and first woman to fly across the English Channel (1912).
	Gennady Padalka (Born 1958). Russian astronaut with a cumulative record 879 days in space.
	Sojourner MARS Rover (1997). The robotic explorer that sent back images from Mars for 3 months in 1997.
	Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003). First Indian-American in space, killed in the Columbia crash (2003).
	Rakesh Sharma (Born 1949). First Indian astronaut in space, aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 (1984).
	Liu Yang (Born 1978). First Chinese woman in space, aboard the Shenzhou 9 (2012).
	Christina Koch (Born 1979). Record for longest continuous time in space for a woman (2019-2020).
	Wally Schirra (1923-2007). The only astronaut to fly on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions.
	Sabiha Gökçen (1913-2001). Turkish military pilot and the first woman ever to fly a combat mission (1937).
	Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986). Teacher and first civilian astronaut, died on the shuttle Challenger (1986).
	Jean-Loup Chretien (Born 1938). First Frenchman in space, in a joint Soviet-French mission (1982).