The US government has decided that only their employees can be called astronauts, unless you do what they say.
According to the FAA, space explorers must go through training and fly beyond 80 kilometres above the Earth surface as a flight crew on a permitted launch or reentry vehicle to be considered an astronaut. They also must have “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.”
By that definition, there were no US astronauts from 2011 to 2019, since all Americans who went into space in that time period were passengers on Russian spacecraft.
4 Comments
Anonymous · July 24, 2021 at 7:26 pm
When you have nothing left to offer, you use trademark and copyrights as a bludgeon.
Hightecrebel · July 24, 2021 at 7:34 pm
Personally, I always thought “Space Traveler” or “Rocketeer” sounded cooler than astronaut anyways…
Toastrider · July 25, 2021 at 12:45 pm
NASA can kiss my shiny metal ass.
DMLMD · July 25, 2021 at 4:57 pm
I think passenger is fitting. If I ride in a taxi, I’m a passenger, not a driver. If I ride in a train, I’m a passenger, not a conductor. If I ride in a jet, I am a passenger, not a pilot. If I ride in a rocket into space, I’m a passenger… Bit if I screw one goat…
I think the actual pilots may have an arguement.
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