Quote from: whitelancer64 on 08/04/2022 08:08 pmQuote from: Oersted on 08/04/2022 07:49 pmHehe, I'd definitely take a suborbital joyride if it was offered to me, but I wouldn't prance about calling myself an astronaut after the flight. I'm not a cowboy either just because my parents dragged me around the zoo on a horse.Astronaut means someone who travels in space. Are you a spacecraft pilot? No. Did you travel in space? Yes. That makes you an astronaut, regardless of what you choose to call yourself or what a government agency will give you a certification for. Same as going on an airplane makes you an aeronaut. Are you an airplane pilot? No. Did you travel through the air? Yes. WRT to your horse comparison, a cowboy is a profession. Going around on a horse makes you a horse rider. Cowboys are also horse riders, but are also trained to herd cattle. So that would leave us with no word to describe those people whose profession it is to fly rockets into space. Until now they have been called astronauts, but from now on everybody going up will be astronauts, even though they are just paying passengers. That does not seem reasonable.In aviation we distinguish between pilots and passengers, or aircrew and passengers. I like the phrase used in the beginning of the NSF article on this hop: "space tourists" (Later in the piece they are called astronauts, oh well...).However, my real beef with these guys being called astronauts is mainly because they just do a hop that only barely gets them above 100 km. In the early days of aviation there was a definition called "sustained flight". To me these hops are hardly sustained flight. That would be reaching orbit and staying there.
Quote from: Oersted on 08/04/2022 07:49 pmHehe, I'd definitely take a suborbital joyride if it was offered to me, but I wouldn't prance about calling myself an astronaut after the flight. I'm not a cowboy either just because my parents dragged me around the zoo on a horse.Astronaut means someone who travels in space. Are you a spacecraft pilot? No. Did you travel in space? Yes. That makes you an astronaut, regardless of what you choose to call yourself or what a government agency will give you a certification for. Same as going on an airplane makes you an aeronaut. Are you an airplane pilot? No. Did you travel through the air? Yes. WRT to your horse comparison, a cowboy is a profession. Going around on a horse makes you a horse rider. Cowboys are also horse riders, but are also trained to herd cattle.
Hehe, I'd definitely take a suborbital joyride if it was offered to me, but I wouldn't prance about calling myself an astronaut after the flight. I'm not a cowboy either just because my parents dragged me around the zoo on a horse.
Great post, whitelancer.I have no problem with the X-15 pilots not being recognised as astronauts. I am pretty sure they did not consider themselves to be astronauts after those flights.Thankfully both Grissom and Shepard later went into orbit, because they clearly and deservedly were astronauts.Anyway, what I think is of little importance... :-)
We've got a thread for this:What should we call people who pay to fly to spacehttps://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53836.0[zubenelgenubi: I split/merged 9 posts to the above-mentioned thread.]
Here is my list:Military Austronuts = Advance trained = Former Military Pilots (Future US Space Force Austronuts)Commercial Austronuts = Highly trained = Current NASA autronuts (somewhat like airline commercai pilotsPrivate Austronuts = Trained for flight operations = Private and Commercial Austronuts for special Lauch Missions (Axiom for example)Passengers Austronuts = Trained for flight emergency procedures = Passengers on Commercial and Private Missions (Space Adventures for example)Etherphiles
Quote from: catdlr on 05/13/2021 12:07 pmHere is my list:Military Austronuts = Advance trained = Former Military Pilots (Future US Space Force Austronuts)Commercial Austronuts = Highly trained = Current NASA autronuts (somewhat like airline commercai pilotsPrivate Austronuts = Trained for flight operations = Private and Commercial Austronuts for special Lauch Missions (Axiom for example)Passengers Austronuts = Trained for flight emergency procedures = Passengers on Commercial and Private Missions (Space Adventures for example)Etherphiles
What do you call a Russian that pays to fly to space on a Chinese rocket?
Citizen Explorers.