Astronaut Pendant - Pewter

Product Description: This Astronaut pendant is made from lead-free pewter. The astronaut is supplied on a waxed cord. The pendant is mounted on an information card, which has an image of an astronaut on the moon on the front and on the reverse, it provides information about astronauts.

Information: An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a spaceflight programme to command, pilot, or be a crew member of an expedition to space in a spacecraft.

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. In 1961 the Soviets also launched the first manned spacecraft, Vostok 1, and Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. In 1961, American President John F. Kennedy announced that the US would place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This promise was fulfilled when Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon in 1969.

Astronauts must wear special pressurised spacesuits to protect them from radiation and allow them to breathe. They also wear an undergarment with a network of tubes circulating cool water to maintain the correct body heat.