FBI Files: Astronauts

Background

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.

I have created this section to archive all of the astronauts and cosmonauts that have FBI Files.

Apollo Program (Apollo I) – [106 Pages, 6.7MB] – Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was the first crewed mission of the United States Apollo program, the undertaking to land the first men on the Moon. Planned as the first low Earth orbital test of the Apollo command and service module, to launch on February 21, 1967, the mission never flew; a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 on January 27 killed all three crew members—Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee—and destroyed the command module (CM). The name Apollo 1, chosen by the crew, was made official by NASA in their honor after the fire.

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These files relate to the FBI investigation into the fire, and a possibility it was sabotage.

Armstrong, Neil – [18 Pages, 0.8 MB] – Neil Alden Armstrong (1930-2012) was a naval aviator and U.S. astronaut. This release consists of 18 pages of FBI file references to Armstrong ranging from 1969 to 1985 relating primarily to requests for FBI name checks in consideration of executive appointment; no derogatory personnel information was found. Redactions were made primarily to protect the privacy of living persons.

Cernan, Eugene – [4 Pages, 1.0MB] – Captain Eugene Andrew “Gene” Cernan (March 14, 1934 – January 16, 2017) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. On Apollo 17, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon and, as the last man to re-enter the Lunar Module, he is as of 2017 the last man to have walked on its surface. He traveled into space three times: as Pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969, and as Commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing. Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions.

Ride, Sally – [76 Pages, 4MB] – Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Ride was the third woman in space overall, after USSR cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987.

Shepard, Alan (FBI Release) – [171 Pages, 85.1MB]
Shepard, Alan (IRS Release) – [3 Pages, 0.5MB] – 1 responsive record was found and denied in full.
Shepard, Alan (IRS Release #2 – Through the FBI) – [19 Pages, 13.9MB] – To my surprise, in June of 2016, a couple years after my request was closed (I thought), I received these files from the FBI after being released by the IRS.
Shepard, Alan (Office of Personnel Management / Federal Investigative Services Release) – [37 Pages, 85.1MB]
Alan Bartlett “Al” Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998), (RADM, USN), was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, flag officer, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, and businessman, who in 1961 became the second person and the first American to travel into space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit. Ten years later, at age 47 and the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the lander to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions. He became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only astronaut of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon. During the mission, he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface.

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