Olusegun Taiye James
The world of space exploration is still being blessed by the presence of pioneering astronauts as of March 2025. These astronauts have not only traveled beyond the confines of our planet, but they have also reached incredible ages and have accomplished a great deal. As of the year 2025, the following is an exhaustive rundown of the top ten oldest astronauts in the world:
List Of Top 10 Oldest Astronauts In The World 2025
1. John Glenn
Leaving an unmistakable mark on both the history of space travel and the history of the United States of America, John Glenn was a pioneering astronaut and a government worker. His legacy continues to inspire breakthroughs in aerospace technology and exploration, as he was the first American to orbit the Earth and later became the oldest person to journey into space. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that he has endorsed Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which is a symbol of the long-lasting effect of his contributions.
2. Franklin Story Musgrav
American astronaut, physician, and consultant Franklin Story Musgrave was born on August 19, 1935 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is widely recognized for his contributions to the field. Because of his diversified career and achievements to space exploration and medicine, he continues to be an inspiration to a great number of people even though he is 89 years old as of the year 2025. This early period of Musgrave’s life was characterized by a profound affinity to both nature and machinery. While he was growing up on a dairy farm, he began to explore forests on his own at the age of three and began building rafts to travel rivers by the time he was five years old. When he was ten years old, he was already running tractors and trucks, and by the time he was thirteen, he was fixing them in vast fields.
3. Dennis Tito
Dennis Tito is an American engineer and businessman who was born on August 8, 1940, in Queens, New York. He is famous for being the first person to visit space. From studying flight engineering to being a leader in private space travel, his life has been full of new ideas, hard work, and a desire to discover the world. As of 2025, Tito is still a well-known figure in the world of private space travel. Dennis Tito and his wife Akiko were chosen by SpaceX to be on the crew of the second commercial trip of Starship around the Moon in October 2022. This project shows that the government is still committed to making space travel available to regular people and shows how far commercial spaceflight technology has come.
4. Vance D. Brand
John Vance DeVoe Brand was born in Longmont, Colorado, on May 9, 1931. He is a famous American astronaut, navy officer, pilot, aeronautical engineer, and test pilot. Brand’s work in space travel and aviation continues to inspire people today, in 2025, when he is 94 years old. Vance D. Brand’s work shows how dedicated he is to flying and exploring space. His work has left a lasting mark on how countries work together in space and on how well the Space Shuttle program runs. As of 2025, his work is still being remembered and admired by people in the engineering and aerospace areas.
5. Jean-Loup Chrétien
Jean-Loup Chrétien is a famous person in the history of space travel. He was born on August 20, 1938, in La Rochelle, France. He was the first person from France and Western Europe to go into space, and his groundbreaking work has left an indelible mark on the national and international aerospace groups. As of February 2025, Jean-Loup Chrétien is still remembered for the huge steps he took to help explore space. His legacy is a source of motivation that reminds us of all the amazing things that can happen when people are brave, curious, and work together across borders.
6. Valery V. Ryumin
Valery Victorovich Ryumin was a famous Soviet cosmonaut and engineer who lived from August 16, 1939, to June 6, 2022. He made important contributions to space travel in the late 20th century. During his career, he went on many space flights, played key parts in building space stations, and led international efforts to work together in space. After he stopped going into space, Ryumin was in charge of flight operations for the Salyut and Mir space stations and worked at RSC Energia as a deputy general designer for testing. He was very important in building and running the Soviet and Russian space stations, which laid the groundwork for modern space living.
7. Karl G. Henize
Born on October 17, 1926, Karl Gordon Henize was a famous American astronomer, space scientist, professor, and NASA pilot. He died on October 5, 1993. During his career, he made important contributions to astronomy, space travel for humans, and scientific study. While Henize was on leave from NASA in 1993, he went on a trip to Mount Everest to test NASA equipment. He wanted to test the Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) at different heights to learn more about how radiation affects human tissues, which is important for long-term space journeys. He got high-altitude lung edema, which was bad, and he died in his sleep on October 5, 1993, at an elevation of 22,000 feet. Henize was buried close to the Changtse Glacier.
8. Peggy Whitson
American biochemist and astronaut Peggy Annette Whitson was born on February 9, 1960, in Mount Ayr, Iowa. She is known for making important contributions to space travel that have changed the way we look at things. Among the many important events in her long and successful career, she was the first woman to manage the International Space Station (ISS) and currently holds the record for the most days spent in space by an American astronaut. In March 2025, Whitson was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, which recognized her outstanding achievements to space exploration over the course of her nearly 40-year career.
9. Roger K. Crouch
Roger Keith Crouch is an American physicist who was born on September 12, 1940, in Jamestown, Tennessee. He is a former NASA astronaut and is known for his work in microgravity studies. Crouch has done a lot over the course of his work to help scientists learn more about materials and how they burn in space. Roger K. Crouch has dedicated his entire career to advancing space science, especially the study of how materials and fires behave in low-gravity settings.
10. William E. Thornton
In addition to being a physician, William Edgar Thornton was also a NASA astronaut. He is widely recognized for his important contributions to the fields of space medicine and research. Thornton’s career included positions as a physicist, a medical doctor, and an astronaut, culminating in a legacy of pioneering work in human spaceflight. Thornton was named after the town of Faison, which is located in North Carolina. It is a monument to the impact that committed research and exploration have had on the advancement of human spaceflight that William E. Thornton’s legacy will continue to live on.
