Talk:Astronaut

Space travel(l)er

I changed the redirect for Space traveller form here to List of space travellers by first flight (I also changed/created redirects for one l and plural s variants pointing to the same place; Space traveler ‎ was previously pointing to human spaceflight and the plural ones did not exist). See also Talk:List_of_space_travellers_by_first_flight#Astronaut_definition. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:59, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

First ESA parastronaut selected

On November 23, 2022, it was announced that John McFall (athlete) was chosen to be the first ESA parastronaut. The article should be updated to reflect this. 212.186.238.122 (talk) 15:02, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

Chinese for 'spaceman'

This is probably a generally accepted translation for 太空人 (tàikōng rén), and probably how they translate it into English in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. That said, there is generally no gender attached to the Chinese character 人 (rén), meaning person, people etc. Nevertheless, without context attached to it, when reading, it is sometimes assigned a male gender by the reader. Also tàikōng rén would be the mainland Mandarin (national Chinese) pinyin romanization for 太空人. The romanization for Canatonese, as mainly spoken in Hong Kong, would be different (possibly: Taai hang yan?), and Taiwan use the Wade-Giles romanization (possibly: t'ai k'ung jen?). I am probably being a bit pedantic here, but thought to add a comment nonetheless. DeptfordDave JC (talk) 17:21, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Space tourists

This statement needs updating: "a generally-accepted but unofficial term for a paying non-crew passenger who flies a private non-NASA or military vehicles above 50 miles (80 km) is a space tourist (as of 2020[needs update], nobody has yet qualified for this status)." People obviously do qualify at this point, including William Shatner. The wording is also mangled in multiple ways and should read "a generally-accepted but unofficial term for a paying non-crew passenger who flies in a private (non-NASA, non-military) vehicle above 50 miles (80 km) is a space tourist ...", probably followed by a mention of the first qualifying instance.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  02:34, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Small mistake many people make…

Astronauts and Cosmonauts are different. Astronauts land on space bodies like the moon and artificial ones too, like the ISS (International Space Station) Cosmonauts just go into space, and don’t land on anything. DogeofWisdom69 (talk) 09:23, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

I'll take it... @DogeofWisdom69: How would you compare the achievements of, say, Scott Carpenter (an astronaut) and Yuri Malenchenko (a cosmonaut)? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:34, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Claim not supported by the sources cited

In the intro there is an allegation: "Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists."This claim has two apparent sources cited. I've just checked both of those sources and there is nothing in them to actually support this claim. This is misinformation being represented as reputable. 23.17.155.111 (talk) 21:43, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 February 2025

The Chinese terms should not be translated using the term “heaven”. This is a bad, fetishised translation. It means sky. “Sky navigator” not “heaven navigator”. 120.19.140.152 (talk) 04:56, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 09:32, 18 February 2025 (UTC)

Parastronaut

If I got it right, "Parastronaut" is just a proposed designation, but hasn't been applied to any actual person that went to space. Even more, it breaks the current convention: either everybody is a [term] just by being in space, or we divide who is and who isn't a [term] based on their activities in space. Not surprisingly, the only person who was designated a "Parastronaut" rejects the term: calling him "something similar to astronaut but not quite" instead of "astronaut", because of things about his body, is condescending discrimination. As he said "I’m not a para-surgeon, I’m a surgeon. I’m not a para-dad, I’m a dad".

I propose to merge that info into the "Other terms" section, instead of having a "Parastronaut" section. At least unless we get to the point we have some actual "parastronaut" in space, who does not reject the term. Cambalachero (talk) 01:08, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

De-bold cosmonaut and taikonaut in the lead

I was reverted by Randy Kryn saying "the term 'astronaut' is the core term for space explorers, also see the hatnote that 'Cosmonaut' redirects here, so should be bolded at first mention."

But I still think the terms cosmonaut and taikonaut should not be bolded in the lead. Here's why:

• Bolding should be done for synonyms (MOS:BOLDALTNAMES), and cosmonaut and taikonaut are not strictly synonymous with astronaut
• Related non-synonymous terms introduced in the lead should be given in italics instead (MOS:NOBOLD), and that's what should be done here
• Cosmonaut and taikonaut do not redirect here (i.e. the lead). They redirect to sections Astronaut § Cosmonaut and Astronaut § Taikonaut below, so any possible bolding should be done there on the first mention at the redirect target (MOS:BOLDREDIRECT).
• Similarly, the hatnote about cosmonaut redirecting "here" should be moved to the section it actually redirects to. The reader getting redirected there does not even see it if it's at the top.
• If we go by Randy Kryn's logic, the redirect targets of cosmonaut and taikonaut should be changed to target the top of this page, since the topic here is actually space explorers, not "astronauts", which is just the vernacular common name. While that would solve the issue, it would result in the namesake subtopic sections Astronaut § Cosmonaut and Astronaut § Taikonaut awkwardly without redirects. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 10:29, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Wally Schirra definition

I get that Wally Schirra was an eminent astronaut (of whom I had never heard), but I have reduced the amount of wordage devoted to him by removing two large blockquotes which do not seem relevant decades down the track. I'm not sure his definition even warrants its own subsection, per WP:UNDUE, but anyway I've left it there. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 03:36, 27 December 2025 (UTC)