Astronaut

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For other uses, see Astronaut (disambiguation). "Cosmonaut" redirects here. For other uses, see Cosmonaut (disambiguation).

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II using aManned Maneuvering Unit outside the United States Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984.

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists. [1][2] Starting in the 1950s up until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the sub-orbital flight of the privately fundedSpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut.
Contents [hide] 1 Definition 2 Terminology o o o o 2.1 English 2.2 Russian 2.3 Chinese 2.4 Other terms

3 Space travel milestones o o o 3.1 Age milestones 3.2 Duration and distance milestones 3.3 Civilian and non-government milestones

3.4 Self-funded travelers

4 Training o 4.1 NASA candidacy requirements 4.1.1 Commander and Pilot 4.1.2 Mission Specialist 4.1.3 Mission Specialist Educator

5 Health risks of space travel 6 Insignia 7 Deaths 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Definition

Freedom 7, a sub-orbital human space mission

The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The Fdration Aronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi).[3] In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km)[4] are awarded astronaut wings. As of 8 June 2013, a total of 532 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km (62 mi) or more in altitude, of which 529 reached low Earth orbit or beyond.[5][6] Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, to either lunar or trans-lunar orbit or to the surface of the moon; three of the 24 did so twice: Jim Lovell, John Young and Eugene Cernan.[7] The three astronauts who have not reached low Earth orbit arespaceplane pilots Joe Walker, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie.

As of 20 June 2011, under the U.S. definition 538 people qualify as having reached space, above 50 miles (80 km) altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles (80 km) in altitude, only one exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62 miles).[8] Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5 man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks.[8][9] As of 2008, the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Sergei K. Krikalev, who has spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes, or 2.2 years, in space.[10][11] Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman, 377 days.[12]

Terminology
See also: Astronaut ranks and positions

English
In English-speaking nations, a professional space traveler is called an astronaut.[13] The term derives from the Greek words stron (), meaning "star", and nautes (), meaning "sailor". The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his short story "The Death's Head Meteor" in 1930. The word itself had been known earlier. For example, in Percy Greg's 1880 book Across the Zodiac, "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de l'Infini (1925) of J.-H. Rosny an, the word astronautique (astronautic) was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied (in 1784) to balloonists. An early use in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell's poem "The Astronaut" in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society.[14] The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950 and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year.[15] NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps.[16] The European Space Agency similarly uses the term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps.[17]

Russian
Main article: Soviet space program By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its Soviet predecessor) is called a cosmonaut in English texts.[16] The word is an anglicisation of the Russian word kosmonavt (Russian: Russian pronunciation: [ksmnaft]), one who works in space outside the Earth's atmosphere, a space traveler,[18] which derives from the Greek words kosmos (), meaning "universe", and nautes (), meaning "sailor". Other countries of the formerEastern Bloc use variations of the Russian word kosmonavt, such as the Polish kosmonauta. The Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonautindeed the first person in space. Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian factory worker, was the first woman in space, as well as arguably the second civilian to make it there (see below for a further discussion of civilians in space). On March 14, 1995, Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and thus became the first "American cosmonaut".[citation needed]

Chinese
Main article: Chinese space program See also: List of Chinese astronauts Official English-language texts issued by the government of the People's Republic of China use astronaut while texts in Russian use (cosmonaut).[19][20] In official Chinese-language texts, "y hng yun" (, "space navigating personnel") is used for

astronauts and cosmonauts, and "hng tin yun" (, "space navigating personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. The phrase "ti kng rn" (, "spaceman") is often used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.[citation needed] The term taikonaut is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China.[21] The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, the latter of which describes it as "a hybrid of the Chinese term taikong (space) and the Greek naut (sailor)"; the term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.[22] This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese People's Daily since the advent of the Chinese space program.[23] The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih () from Malaysia, used it in newsgroups.[24][25]

Other terms
With the rise of space tourism, NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term "spaceflight participant" to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies.[citation needed] While no nation other than the Russian Federation (and previously the former Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched a manned spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (French spelling: spationaute) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word spatium for "space", the Malay term angkasawan was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program, and the Indian Space Research Organization hope to launch a spacecraft in 2018 that would carry vyomanauts, coined from the Sanskrit word for space.[citation needed]

Space travel milestones