Wikipedia for Kids

Astronauts are people that fly into SPACE. They fly on a SPACE SHUTTLE, which is like a PLANE but a lot bigger and it has big TANKS for FUEL. The fuel tanks give it a big boost and let the space shuttle go five thousand MILES PER HOUR. It would have to keep going that fast for a year to get all the way to the MARS, which is one million LIGHT YEARS away. The tanks fall off after they're done and the space shuttle is in space. They should RECYCLE the old ones.

When you're in space, you can float around and all of the stuff in the shuttle with you floats around, too. You have to tie yourself down to your BED to SLEEP. This is because there is no GRAVITY in space. There is this video that shows astronauts floating around and doing SOMERSAULTS and other tricks like eating a spinning BANANA in mid-air. Lots of other food is eaten by astronauts. They get their own ICE CREAM that is made by NASA that is different than normal ice cream, because normal ice cream can't work in space.

Many different missions are done by astronauts. They can SPACEWALK
around the shuttle to fix things or just look around space. Astronauts have to install SATELLITES so TVs and RADIOS can send signals to everyone's houses. If a satellite gets too old if becomes SPACE JUNK, and they have to drive around it or blow it up. Sometimes they meet with other astronauts at the SPACE STATION, where they try to make PLANTS grow and do other experiments.

All the time they have to wear a SPACE SUIT, because they would die if they didn't wear it. If they're hand was outside of the suit it would get so cold that it would break into tiny pieces if a hammer hit it.

You have to be in good shape to be able to go on the space shuttle, though, and NASA makes you go around and around on a spinning chair so they know you are good enough. There have been like a hundred astronauts. Only a couple were GIRLS because most girls aren't strong enough to go to space, and if you stay in space for a while, you will be taller when you get back to the ground. An astronaut won't get as tall as SHAQ but he will get a little taller, because space makes your SPINE stretch out. If you get to be an astronaut you make a million DOLLARS a year.