{"id":259095,"date":"2021-05-25T19:31:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T16:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/whos-an-astronaut-as-private-spaceflight-picks-up-speed\/"},"modified":"2021-05-25T19:31:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T16:31:16","slug":"whos-an-astronaut-as-private-spaceflight-picks-up-speed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/whos-an-astronaut-as-private-spaceflight-picks-up-speed\/","title":{"rendered":"#Who\u2019s an astronaut as private spaceflight picks up speed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Who\u2019s an astronaut as private spaceflight picks up speed?<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 As more companies start selling tickets to space, a question looms: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Astronauts? Amateur astronauts? Space tourists? Space sightseers? Rocket riders? Or as the Russians have said for decades, spaceflight participants?<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s new boss Bill Nelson doesn\u2019t consider himself an astronaut even though he spent six days orbiting Earth in 1986 aboard space shuttle Columbia \u2014 as a congressman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI reserve that term for my professional colleagues,\u201d Nelson recently told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Computer <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> developer Richard Garriott \u2014 who paid his way to the International Space Station in 2008 with the Russians \u2014 hates the space tourist label. \u201cI am an astronaut,\u201d he declared in an email, explaining that he trained for two years for the mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you go to space, you\u2019re an astronaut,\u201d said Axiom Space\u2019s Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who will accompany three businessmen to the space station in January, flying SpaceX. His $55 million-a-seat clients plan to conduct research up there, he stressed and do not consider themselves space tourists.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASA administrator explains \u2018Who is an astronaut?\u2019\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eZcKl4QX4rk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s something enchanting about the word: Astronaut comes from the Greek words for star and sailor. And swashbuckling images of \u201cThe Right Stuff\u201d and NASA\u2019s original Mercury 7 astronauts make for great marketing.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 rocket company, Blue Origin, is already calling its future clients \u201castronauts.\u201d It\u2019s auctioning off one seat on its first spaceflight with people on board, targeted for July. NASA even has a new acronym: PAM for Private Astronaut Mission.<\/p>\n<p>Retired NASA astronaut Mike Mullane didn\u2019t consider himself an astronaut until his first space shuttle flight in 1984, six years after his selection by NASA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you buy a ride or you\u2019re assigned to a ride,\u201d said Mullane, whose 2006 autobiography is titled \u201cRiding Rockets.\u201d Until you strap into a rocket and reach a certain altitude, \u201cyou\u2019re not an astronaut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It remains a coveted assignment. More than 12,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lied for NASA\u2019s upcoming class of astronauts; a lucky dozen or so will be selected in December.<\/p>\n<p>But what about passengers who are along for the ride, like the Russian actress and movie director who will fly to the space station in October? Or Japan\u2019s moonstruck billionaire who will follow them from Kazakhstan in December with his production assistant tagging along to document everything? In each case, a professional cosmonaut will be in charge of the Soyuz capsule.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s high tech capsules are completely automated, as are Blue Origin\u2019s. So should rich riders and their guests be called astronauts even if they learn the ropes in case they need to intervene in an emergency?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" alt=\"Participants enjoy the Blue Origin Space Simulator during the Amazon Re:MARS conference on robotics and artificial intelligence in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2019. &#10;\" class=\"wp-image-18336738 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-03.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2000 2000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Participants enjoy the Blue Origin Space Simulator during the Amazon Re:MARS conference on robotics and artificial intelligence in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2019.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Perhaps even more important, where does space begin?<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Aviation Administration limits its commercial astronaut wings to flight crews. The minimum altitude is 50 miles (80 kilometers). It\u2019s awarded seven so far; recipients include the two pilots for Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic who made another test flight of the company\u2019s rocket ship Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Others define space as beginning at an even 100 kilometers, or 62 miles above sea level.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s capsules are designed to reach that threshold and provide a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth, By contrast, it takes 1 1\/2 hours to circle the world. The Association of Space Explorers requires at least one orbit of Earth \u2014 in a spacecraft \u2014 for membership.<\/p>\n<p>The Astronauts Memorial Foundation honors all those who sacrificed their lives for the US space program even if they never reached space, like Challenger schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and the test pilot killed in a 2014 Virgin Galactic crash. Also on the Space Mirror Memorial at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center: X-15 and F-104 Air Force pilots who were part of a military space program that never got off the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The astronaut debate has been around since the 1960s, according to Garriott. His late father, Owen Garriott, was among the first so-called scientist-astronauts hired by NASA; the test pilots in the office resented sharing the job title.<\/p>\n<p>It might be necessary to retire the term altogether once hundreds if not thousands reach space, noted Fordham University history professor Asif Siddiqi, the author of several space books. \u201cAre we going to call each and every one of them astronauts?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mullane, the three-time space shuttle flier, suggests using astronaut first class, second class, third class, \u201cdepending on what your involvement is, whether you pull out a wallet and write a check.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While a military-style pecking order might work, former NASA historian Roger Launius warned: \u201cThis gets really complicated really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Mullane noted, \u201cAstronaut is not a copyrighted word. So anybody who wants to call themselves an astronaut can call themselves an astronaut, whether they\u2019ve been in space or not.\u201d\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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It\u2019s already a complicated issue and about to get more so as the wealthy snap up spacecraft seats and even entire flights for themselves&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/astronaut-tourism-space-01.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[107165,73340,71631,5026,67907,5019],"class_list":["post-259095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-25-21","tag-astronauts","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}