Exploration
Journeys across Earth and beyond.
Explore Exploration
People in Exploration
69 profiles
AstronautNeil Armstrong
Becoming the first person to walk on the Moon.
AviatorAmelia Earhart
Becoming the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic.
BroadcasterDavid Attenborough
Bringing the natural world to television through Life on Earth and Planet Earth.
Space scientistVikram Sarabhai
Founding India’s space programme with a focus on everyday needs.
Space scientistKrishnaswamy Kasturirangan
Leading ISRO as India’s satellite-launch capabilities expanded.
Space engineerMylswamy Annadurai
Leading Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon.
AstronautYuri Gagarin
Becoming the first human to travel into space.
Fossil collectorMary Anning
Uncovering marine-reptile fossils that changed understanding of prehistoric life.
Ocean explorerJacques Cousteau
Opening the underwater world to divers and television audiences.
ExplorerRoald Amundsen
Leading the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
NaturalistAlexander von Humboldt
Showing how climate, landscape and living things connect.
ExplorerIbn Battuta
Leaving an extensive account of travels across Africa and Asia in the Rihla.
AstronautMae Jemison
Becoming the first Black woman to travel into space.
AstronautKalpana Chawla
Becoming the first woman of Indian origin to travel into space.
AstronautValentina Tereshkova
Becoming the first woman in space on Vostok 6 in 1963.
AstronautYang Liwei
Becoming the first astronaut launched into space by China.
AstronautArnaldo Tamayo Méndez
Becoming the first Latin American and first person of African descent to reach space.
ExplorerSacagawea
Helping the Lewis and Clark expedition through interpreting and cultural knowledge.
ExplorerEdmund Hillary
Reaching Everest’s summit with Tenzing Norgay in the first confirmed ascent.
AstronautSunita Williams
Serving on long space-station missions and commanding the International Space Station.
AstronautRakesh Sharma
Becoming the first Indian to travel into space.
ExplorerErnest Shackleton
Bringing his Endurance expedition’s men home after their ship was crushed by Antarctic ice.
ExplorerZheng He
Leading Ming China’s great maritime expeditions across the Indian Ocean.
ExplorerTenzing Norgay
Reaching Everest’s summit with Edmund Hillary in the first confirmed ascent.
ExplorerJunko Tabei
Becoming the first woman to climb Everest and the Seven Summits.
ExplorerWanda Rutkiewicz
Becoming the first woman to climb K2 and the first European woman to summit Everest.
ExplorerFanny Bullock Workman
Setting women’s altitude records and documenting Himalayan and Karakoram expeditions.
ExplorerAlexandra David-Néel
Travelling to Lhasa in 1924 and writing influential accounts of Tibetan Buddhism.
ExplorerIsabella Bird
Writing vivid accounts of journeys through the Rocky Mountains, Japan and other regions.
WriterDervla Murphy
Writing Full Tilt after travelling overland from Ireland to India by bicycle.
ExplorerFreya Stark
The travel writer whose journeys through Iran and southern Arabia produced vivid accounts of places little described in English.
ExplorerJeanne Baret
The first woman known to have completed a voyage around the world.
ExplorerMatthew Henson
Playing a central role in Robert Peary’s Arctic expeditions and disputed 1909 North Pole claim.
ExplorerFridtjof Nansen
Crossing Greenland’s ice cap and pioneering international support for refugees.
ExplorerThor Heyerdahl
Crossing the Pacific on the Kon-Tiki raft in 1947.
ExplorerAbel Tasman
Leading the first recorded European voyages to Tasmania and New Zealand.
ExplorerXuanzang
Travelling from China to India to study Buddhism and bringing texts back for translation.
ExplorerFaxian
Travelling to India for Buddhist texts and recording the journey in A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms.
ExplorerHyecho
Leaving a rare eyewitness account of eighth-century Buddhist Asia.
ExplorerAhmad ibn Fadlan
Recording a tenth-century journey to the Volga and an eyewitness account of a Rus funeral.
WriterLeo Africanus
Writing the influential Description of Africa.
GeologistAdam Sedgwick
Helping define the Cambrian and Devonian geological periods.
GeologistRoderick Murchison
Defining the Silurian system and helping establish the Devonian and Permian.
AstronautTatyana Kuznetsova
Joining the Soviet Union’s first group of women cosmonaut trainees.
AstronautMaryna Vasileuskaya
Becoming the first Belarusian woman in space.
AstronautSara Sabry
Becoming the first Egyptian to travel to space.
AstronautSvetlana Savitskaya
Becoming the first woman to perform a spacewalk.
GeologistCharles Lyell
Explaining geological change through processes still observable today.
AstronautRayyanah Barnawi
Becoming the first Saudi woman to travel to space.
AstronautAnna Kikina
Becoming the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon.
AstronautSara García Alonso
Joining ESA’s astronaut reserve while researching cancer.
AstronautYelena Kondakova
Becoming the first woman to complete a long-duration spaceflight.
AstronautNora Al Matrooshi
Becoming the first Emirati woman selected and trained as an astronaut.
AstronautYi So-yeon
Becoming the first South Korean to travel into space.
AstronautNadezhda Kuzhelnaya
Training as a Russian cosmonaut before becoming an airline pilot.
AstronautZhanna Yorkina
Joining the Soviet Union’s first group of women cosmonaut trainees.
AstronautValentina Ponomaryova
Training in the first Soviet women’s cosmonaut group.
AstronautAnousheh Ansari
Becoming the first self-funded woman to visit the International Space Station.
AstronautYelena Serova
A long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station
AstronautHelen Sharman
Becoming the first British person in space
AstronautPatricia Robertson
Physician and NASA astronaut selected in 1998
AstronautKathleen Rubins
Space-station missions and microbiology research.
AstronautRenate Brümmer
Training for Germany’s Spacelab programme and researching satellite meteorology.
AstronautChiaki Mukai
Becoming the first Japanese woman in space.
AstronautNaoko Yamazaki
Space Shuttle work on the International Space Station.
AstronautJulie Payette
Two space-shuttle missions and service as Canada’s governor general.
AstronautSamantha Cristoforetti
Becoming Italy’s first woman in space.
AstronautClaudie Haigneré
Becoming the first French woman in space.
AstronautJenni Gibbons
Canadian astronaut and combustion researcher