By definition of law they are but it feels so wrong man, I mean you have other people who have studied and trained their whole life to go up in space to do ground-breaking scientific research just for some rich or lucky person to go “Look I’m just like you i’ve gone to space!” like it makes me annoyed that people who risk their lives and the many men and women who have sacrificed their lives to further advance the human population and some rich person who is bored with a lot of cash get the same title it’s unfair in my eyes Same logic applies for people who fly on Virgin Galactic.
In other things it’s still impressive and they don’t completely deserve to loose their title so there should be a new word formed for space tourists like them, Atmos from Latin to English means atmosphere so we would call them Atmosnaut (Atmosphere Sailor) same logic as Astronaut (Star Sailor) it’s more logical in my eyes
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Space tourist
I don’t suspect this is very unpopular.
You said it yourself, “space tourists”.
Gatekeeping by jealous proxy?
Not all people on cruise ships are sailors.
This is not unpopular opinion. The majority of people believe people that a ride on the dick rocket, and spending about 60 seconds outside the atmosphere and 4 minutes total weightlessness are not actually astronauts….
Ass-hats though, amirite?
Penisnauts
I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion
Yeah I wouldn’t call them astronauts either. I think space tourist works fine.
I would consider astronaut to be a job title personally, not just a moniker for someone who has been in space. So if someone isn’t going into space to work and perform duties then no, I would not consider them an astronaut.
Although, not sure about people training their whole lives to be an astronaut. At least as I understand it, you only really need to train for a couple of years. It’s your expertise in your actual field that determines if you get sent up there.
There no more in astronaut than someone who goes on a cruise as a sailor.
I was on a United flight today.
This makes me an aviator.
What ground breaking scientific research?
Yea, they are attentionwhores
Not astronauts. They’re just rich people with a lot of cash to blow on a luxury “vacation” the average person can’t afford. And considering they didn’t technically go into outer space like real astronauts do, I’d day “Atmosnaut” is appropriate here.
Id recommend looking up Amanda Nguyen, one of the women who was on Blue Origin. I reckon she’s earned the right to be called an astronaut at least.
Technically, by the definition of the word, they are astronauts. However, NASA changed their definition of Astronaut so that it excludes Passengers of Bezos and Branson’s space endeavors.
Not unpopular. Nobody called all those animals we flung into space in the sixties astronauts.
Are people even calling them astronaut. By definition, they’d be wrong anyway.
This should be in r/noshitsherlock!
They arent. The FAA restructured it’s height map to explicitly state that they did not go to space
Ehhh who cares…..
Id bet a million your mainly just salty coz they where girls.
They’re mostly not.
Here’s a curveball:
is this guy an astronaut?
He’s at least closer than most of the passengers. (I’d probably call them passengers but this guy an honorary astronaut)
When the news said Lauren Sanchez is ‘heading the mission’ 🤣 is she? Is she really?
Passenger
I’ve flown on a plane but that doesn’t make me a pilot. I’ve watched a movie but that doesn’t make me a professional critic. If you’re not carrying out the actual actions or trained to do so, in this case, piloting the spacecraft, you’re not an astronaut, you’re a tourist. I think a good way to think of it is like tandem skydiving, the person paying for the experience has the experience of skydiving but they’re not trained and wouldn’t know what to do without the other person there. The tourist is not a skydiver because none of it could happen for them without the trained other person. Same deal for space tourists and astronauts
As I said when Musk was talking about stuff like this.
IF you aren’t mission critical, you’re not an astronaut. You’re cargo.
I don’t think this is particularly unpopular.
Astronaut: An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft.
Astronaut is a career. Astronauts are trained individuals. People who pay money for a seat on a rocket are merely tourists, same as passengers on a cruise liner.
This was my first thought. There are NO astronauts on this Blue Origin flight, just like there is no crew.
Calling them astronauts is an insult to every actual astronaut.
There’s a huge difference between those who have spent years learning, gaining valuable skills, who work for the privilege of being an astronaut and a group of rich women going on a jaunt that involves nothing but having money.
These women are tourists, simply passengers on a remote-controlled joy flight. The craft would behave exactly the same if it was unmanned.
I was going to say if they are astronauts then I guess everybody who applies a band-aid is a doctor but if you’re applying a band-aid you are actually doing something.
Space migrants
Rich people using there are massive amounts of wealth to gain accolades, normal people have to work their a**** off for is literally how things work
. Like that literally just summarizes america.
Good news then. They aren’t. The requirements for what qualifies you to be called a astronaut has been changed recently.
I feel the same way about people walking in the nice single file line all the way up Everest, you’re not a mountaineer you’re an extreme hiker
I was thinking about this earlier, astronaut should be a purely scientific term in the way explorer was in centuries past. There was a point going to America just made you a settler or colonist, not an explorer, and I feel we’re reaching that point when it comes to Low Earth Orbit. If you’re just going there for a vanity joyride you don’t deserve to be in the same class of title as actual scientists doing something meaningful.
Astronot
I’m sorry but your idea is also fucking stupid. I’m not calling anyone an atmosnaut. I hate this invention of new labels simply to avoid using the old terms. Just another offshoot of the cancel culture war in my view.
Is there anyone saying they are astronauts?
Are these space tourists people claiming to be astronauts?
By definition of law?
According to the legal definition, they’re not astronauts because astronaut is either a profession or a specialist that is subcontracted (ie. scientists who travel to the space station for experiments, or engineers who travel to the space station for repairs, but who aren’t astronauts as their main profession). So no, space tourists don’t qualify as astronauts.
They’re not astronauts unless they work on the ship. It’s the same as a seafaring ship.
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-ends-commercial-space-astronaut-wings-program-will-recognize-individuals-reaching
The FAA stopped awarding astronaut wings due to the rise of space tourists.
Or is it because there’s not one man.
Space passenger
I was thinking The same thing when I saw a headline this morning saying they were “led by Katy Perry”. Like I’m pretty sure she’s not a real astronaut and if I was a real astronaut I would be pissed.
Fair. Just because I ridw in airplanes I’m not a pilot. So I think this is the same concept.
Why even create a new word? Just call them space tourists.
Not unpopular I don’t think
They didn’t even go to orbit.
There’s one actual person who is crew. Everyone else is a passenger.