> Tbh, taking the example of a country that didn't disappear, very few people in France would know who the first Frenchman in space was. At least in Germany, A

> Tbh, taking the example of a country that didn't disappear, very few people in France would know who the first Frenchman in space was. At least in Germany, Alexander Gerst > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexander_Gerst&oldid=864298516 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexander_Gerst&o... who is currently on the ISS > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_International_Space_Station_expeditions&oldid=865024994#Current_expedition https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Internati... has quite celebrity status. Also "nearly everybody" in East Germany knows the Siegmund Jähn from the article and because of the movie "Good Bye, Lenin!", he also became quite well-known in West Germany (see my post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18268728 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18268728). I openly admit that I had to look up the first West German and second German in space (Ulf Merbold; he is also mentioned in the Zeit article). In my defense, this was before my time. On the other hand, I can immediately additionally name Gerhard Thiele (SRTM - Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerhard_Thiele&oldid=767769685 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerhard_Thiele&ol... and Thomas Reiter (ISS) > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Reiter&oldid=860352159 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Reiter&old... So from my "sister posts" seems to me that in Germany, astronauts have more appreciation from fellow-countrymen than in many other countries.