In September 2006, <a href=http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060130_xprize_new.html target=new>X Prize</a> sponsor Anousheh Ansari was the world's first Iranian to blast into space, as well as the first female <a href=http://www.livescience.com/space/news/ap_070430_simonyi_bookplan.html target=new>space tourist</a>. For $20 million she was trained for six months and learned the inner workings of the systems on the rocket and space station. Millions of people read Ansari's <a href=http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060929_ap_ansari_blog.html target=new>blog</a> as she orbited Earth and dozens of Iranian women caught a glimpse of the space station from an observatory near Tehran.
At 5-feet-tall, Russian cosmonaut <a href=http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/yuris_night_010411-1.html target=new>Yuri Gagarin</a> was the perfect size to fit into the cramped quarters of the <a href=http://www.space.com/news/060412_gagarin_45thanniv.html target=new>Vostok 1</a> on man's maiden voyage into space. The spacecraft rocketed into space, orbited the Earth and, 108 minutes later, and arrived back on land on April 12, 1961.
Louise Arner Boyd earned the nickname "Ice Woman" for her adventurous research in <a href=http://www.livescience.com/environment/ap_060216_greenland.html target=new>Greenland</a>. Along with studying fjords and <a href=http://www.livescience.com/environment/041209_runaway_glacier.html target=new>glaciers</a>, she discovered an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean. In 1955 she became the first woman to fly in a plane over the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?p=9&imgid=460&gid=32&index=0 target=new>North Pole</a>.
In 1947, General Charles "Chuck" Yeager was the first man to break the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070323_mach_speed.html target=new>sound barrier</a>. He topped his own <a href=http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/yeager_101199.html target=new>record</a> in 1952 when he flew at more than twice the speed of sound. Yeager paved the way, as it were, to <a href=http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=3562&gid=263&index=0 target=new>space</a>, sharing his aerial expertise by training almost half the pilots for the Gemini, Mercury and <a href=http://www.space.com/news/a11_manflights.html target=new>Apollo</a> space programs.
Beebe's fascination with the natural world led him to dive deep into the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/oceans/ target=new>ocean</a> in a steel sphere called a bathysphere in 1934. A rubber hose lined with telephone and electricity wires connected the bathysphere with people on the surface. Submerged 3,028 feet below, Beebe said the world looked as <a href=http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?gid=7 target=new>strange</a> as Mars.
Captain James Cook sailed farther south than any other explorer before him, and proved the Northwest Passage to be a trade route fantasy. On board, <a href=http://www.livescience.com/environment/060511_magnetic_logs.html target=new>Cook</a> ran a clean ship to fend off diseases like scurvy. With his healthy crew, he <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/050504_museum_recordings.html target=new>mapped</a> the coastline of <a href=http://www.livescience.com/animals/060624_ap_harriet_dead.html target=new>Australia</a>, as well as much of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaiians killed Cook in 1779 after he took their chief hostage.
Columbus may have spotted the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/060914_oldest_writing.html target=new>New World</a>, but the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/061219_america_name.html target=new>continent's namesake</a>, Amerigo Vespucci, was the first to know what he was looking at. After tracing the coast of South America in 1502, he realized the continent was uncharted territory, and not India, as previously thought.
This son of an Italian wool weaver first set sail at the age of 13. Spanish royalty funded his later adventures in exchange for promises of new lands, spices, <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/070220_newworld_silver.html target=new>money</a> and people to convert to <a href=http://www.livescience.com/health/070424_religion_kids.html target=new>Christianity</a>. His fleet-The Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria-set sail in search of a direct route to the East from the West. But the navigator's underestimation of the Earth's circumference landed the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/060306_desert_ships.html target=new>ships</a> in the Bahamas and Cuba in 1492.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark relied heavily on Sacagawea's <a href=http://www.livescience.com/animals/060418_ant_navigation.html target=new>navigation</a> skills during their westward exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. While carrying her newborn son more than 4,000 miles, she taught the Corps of Discovery how to prepare edible plants and how to make leather clothes and moccasins. Along the way she met her long lost brother, chief of the <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/canyon_secrets_040920.html target=new>Shoshone tribe</a> in 1805.
The first European to venture to North America was most likely Icelandic explorer Leif Ericsson. In the 11th century, the Norseman sailed off-course, arriving at a place he called "Vinland." Although no one knows quite where he landed, <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/061102_ap_viking_treasure.html target=new>archaeologists</a> have uncovered <a href=http://www.livescience.com/history/070302_viking_navigation.html target=new>Viking</a> ruins in Newfoundland, Canada.
