Neil Armstrong for one, was a civilian. From 1949 to 1952, Armstrong was a
naval aviator, but was a civilian when he piloted Gemini 8 and Apollo 11.

Steve

"gatt" wrote in message
...

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message news:XmKBc.746

A news link posted in another thread refers to him as the first
"non-governmental astronaut".

That's not even close to being true.

What other civilian piloted a craft into space?