posted 05-18-2021 11:54 AM               

Soon rich businessmen with $55 million to spare could become astronauts. So could the founder of a company that processes credit-card payments, and a physician’s assistant who works with cancer patients. Jeff Bezos could count as an astronaut too.

That thought might sound more like an SNL skit than a real future, but here we are. Americans who want to fly to space can skip the long and difficult process of becoming a NASA astronaut. Now all that’s necessary is some combination of money and luck. ...

All of this has renewed debate about who counts as an astronaut and who doesn’t. Most people would agree that the professional astronauts who work for NASA are astronauts. But what about NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who flew to space in 1986 as a member of Congress and has since referred to himself as an astronaut? And what about Bezos, who says he wants to try out his own Blue Origin spacecraft someday? Do you have to reach orbit to become an astronaut, or is simply crossing the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space enough to earn the title?

posted 05-18-2021 12:47 PM               

The problem is that the term "astronaut" is vague enough to apply to anyone who travels to space. And of course, every wealthy space tourist will want to call themselves an astronaut for the rest of their lives. But the allure of going to space is quickly about to be lost. Not so long ago, Charles Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris, and it was a defining event in human history. A few short decades later, I made the same trip myself. I was on a large plane stuffed full of tourists and screaming children, and when I got off the plane, nobody was asking for my autograph. Something similar is about to happen with space travel.

posted 05-18-2021 08:48 PM               

Astronaut status? Not for me.

posted 05-18-2021 09:26 PM               

Aircraft aircrew who drive the aircraft are called pilots. As the machines became more sophisticated the job tasks diversified, requiring a co-pilot, a navigator, an observer, cabin attendants, and a flight engineer. Military aircraft with payloads requiring specialist skills or additional manning created the positions of bombardier and gunner.

The original Astronauts were selected from a group of test pilots because test pilots possessed the skills and abilities needed to help get the job of crewed spaceflight done. Choosing someone from another field would require gaining the training and experience of working in the flight test business, communicating via radio using the correct vocabulary, and gaining a familiarity with the stresses of flight, before you learn to be an astronaut.

As manned spaceflight developed into multi-crew operations, each astronaut position gained an identity identifier, such as commander and pilot. Each position holds a specific assignment.

This trend expanded during the Shuttle era where multiple crew members had tasks that were not directly responsible for piloting the vehicle, such as scientists and payload specialists. These became astronaut payload specialists.

In aviation, people who travel by air on an aircraft who do not hold a position of responsibility other than their safety are called passengers, or air travelers. So people traveling to space (star sailors = Astronauts) are essentially astronaut passengers or space travelers.

In the future, pilotless aircraft may become a reality for airline operators, and the positions of aircrew may become redundant. This is almost true for spaceflight today, with the crew monitoring operations with access to switches and buttons for use to make control input changes. But the crew are generally along for the ride unless something goes wrong.