Computer game developer Richard Garriott - who paid his way to the International Space Station in 2008 with the Russians - hates the space tourist label. "I am an astronaut," he declared in an email, explaining that he trained for two years for the mission.
Computer game developer Richard Garriott who paid his way to the International Space Station in 2008 with the Russians hates the space tourist label. I am an astronaut, he declared in an email, explaining that he trained for two years for the mission. FILE - In this Monday, March 29, 2021 photo provided by SpaceX, from left, Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski pose for a photo on the SpaceX launch tower at NASA s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. SpaceX’s high tech capsules are completely automated, as are Blue Origin’s. So should wealthy riders and their guests be called astronauts even if they learn the ropes in case they need to intervene in an emergency? (SpaceX via AP, File)
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
As more companies start selling tickets to space, a question looms: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut?
It’s already a complicated issue and about to get more so as the wealthy snap up spacecraft seats and even entire flights for themselves and their entourages.
Astronauts? Amateur astronauts? Space tourists? Space sightseers? Rocket riders? Or as the Russians have said for decades, spaceflight participants?
NASA’s new boss Bill Nelson doesn’t consider himself an astronaut even though he spent six days orbiting Earth in 1986 aboard space shuttle Columbia – as a congressman.
“I reserve that term for my professional colleagues,” Mr. Nelson recently told The Associated Press.
May 25, 2021 Share
CAPE CANAVERAL As more companies start selling tickets to space, a question looms: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut?
It’s already a complicated issue and about to get more so as the wealthy snap up spacecraft seats and even entire flights for themselves and their entourages.
Astronauts? Amateur astronauts? Space tourists? Space sightseers? Rocket riders? Or as the Russians have said for decades, spaceflight participants?
NASA’s new boss Bill Nelson doesn’t consider himself an astronaut even though he spent six days orbiting Earth in 1986 aboard space shuttle Columbia as a congressman.
“I reserve that term for my professional colleagues,” Nelson recently told The Associated Press.
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Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn reaches for controls inside a Mercury capsule procedures trainer as he shows how the first U.S. astronaut will ride through space during a demonstration at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research Center in Langley Field, Va., on Jan. 11, 1961. In 2021, as more companies start selling tickets to space and the cosmos opens for travel like never before, a question looms above all others: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut? (AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. As more companies start selling tickets to space, a question looms: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut?
It s already a complicated issue and about to get more so as the wealthy snap up spacecraft seats and even entire flights for themselves and their entourages.