Who is an Astronaut?

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An astronaut is a person trained to travel in space. Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit around the earth in 1961 and, since then, hundreds of them have been to the space. An astronaut should be extremely fit to survive the tremendous force of lift-off, which causes a feeling of the body being squashed. An astronaut is trained to operate spacecraft controls and to do other complicated works in difficult conditions. This could be performing experiments for scientists on ground, launching new satellites or rescuing damaged ones for repair. Once in the space, the astronaut experiences weightlessness. Eating and drinking present problems, since water breaks up into floating droplets and a haze of crumbs and debris would form. To avoid

this, the food is squeezed into the mouth from sachets and liquid is sucked through a straw.

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