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This is going to be like hackers vs. crackers. We're going to try to fight for space to be > 100km and astronauts to be people who've been to space and we're go
by jgrahamc 3y ago
This is going to be like hackers vs. crackers. We're going to try to fight for space to be > 100km and astronauts to be people who've been to space and we're going to fail. Especially since space in the US sometimes means > 80km and hence astronauts are people above 80km.
I think we need a word for someone who's gone orbital into space.
- cratermoon 3y agoEven aside from altitude and orbital vs sub-orbital, the term astronauts needs to refer to people who made a career out of going into and working in and with space flight. The people who pay money to go for a visit are tourists, nothing more. You wouldn't call someone who takes a 7-day cruise a sailor.
- BitwiseFool 3y agoThe comparison I like to use is that being a passenger on an airplane doesn't make someone an aviator.
- npongratz 3y ago> You wouldn't call someone who takes a 7-day cruise a sailor. I wouldn't and you wouldn't and perhaps no one should, but coincidentally, Virgin Voyages cruise line does indeed call their customers "sailors": https://www.virginvoyages.com/help-and-support/the-days-at-sea/sailor-services https://www.virginvoyages.com/help-and-support/the-days-at-s...
- cratermoon 3y agoAt least they're consistent.
- satvikpendem 3y agoShall we revive the Soviet-era "cosmonaut?" By the way, For All Mankind is a great show.
- positr0n 3y agoFWIW cosmonaut isn’t Soviet era, it's the Russian term for astronaut. Though I've never understood why in the West we use that essentially untranslated term* when we don't anglicize the Russian pronunciation of any other jobs. You won't read a news article about Russian "svarshchiks", you'd just translate that to "welder". * And now taikonaut for Chinese astronauts!
- Iwan-Zotow 3y agoYou can't "revive" it because it is not dead