Talk:Astronaut

Taikonaut

Taikonaut is the term I have seen in every article by western media, and the term apparently used by many people in China. Despite it not being the official term, I'd say it is definately in major use. — Swpb ^{talk contribs} 14:46, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

While that may be and we should certainly add some citations to that effect, it is coined term by the media and not the Chinese word for an astronaut. Consider that nine citizens of France have flown in space, while only three from China. Should we not list the coined term "spationaut" in the opening paragraph? As this is an article in the English Wikipedia about professional space travelers, I suggest we stick to "astronaut" in the opening section and detail all international versions of the word in the Terminology section. Rillian 18:38, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Would you propose removing cosmonaut from the introduction too? Why should use by governments be the criterion for including an alternate name in the introduction, rather than popular use of the term? It seems to me popular usage would be a more important factor, perhaps even the most important. What places taikonaut in the category with astronaut and cosmonaut, as opposed to spationaut and all the various other alternate-language versions people regularly add to the introduction, is that China, like Russia and the U.S., has its own manned space program. The three Chinese space travellers were launched from China, aboard Chinese spacecraft (Admittedly glorified Soyuz redesigns, but still) - I think this is a pretty concrete distinction, and between the official, government-sanctioned term and the term in popular usage, I would favor the latter. — Swpb ^{talk contribs} 05:22, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I didn't propose that governments should be arbitrator, I said that the Chinese word for astronaut is not taikonaut. The word is hángtiān yuán (in Pinyin), not taikonaut, and when the Chinese translate hángtiān yuán into English, they translate it as astronaut, not taikonaut. Unless we can find some citations that show the term has become as commonly used and as commonly known as the Russian version космона́вт, it doesn't merit mention in the opening paragraph. Rillian 13:59, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I seem to remember reading that in China, the term in common use was "taikong ren" which was translated to taikonaut, but I can't find anything to back that up. So I suppose that if the common Chinese term had a unique English translation, it would merit placement in the introduction - but I don't know anyone in China and the google will only tell me what terms the media use. — Swpb ^{talk contribs} 17:17, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought the term has been accepted and used by Western media years ago. See [1] for example. Even Bob Casta introduced the pretend astronauts as Taikonauts during the NBC broadcasting of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. I really don't understand why some Wikipedia police tries to censor this term? What is the big deal? Kowloonese (talk) 19:40, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

I sensed that there was a misunderstand in the thread of discussion above. Taikong Ren is a transliteration of a Chinese term. Taikonaut is an English term used by Chinese and Western media in English publications to refer to the spacemen sent to space using Chinese rockets. Some one probably the dinosaur type seems to forget language is living and evolving. When a term become popular and common, it should be acknowledged as part of the language. e.g. Bling Bling is added recently to some dictionary. So are you trying to tell me Bling Bling wasn't a English word before some arbitary publisher decided to include or exclude the word? The English language belongs to the public, not some publishers. Kowloonese (talk) 19:47, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

The paragraph on taikonauts sucked. I tried to fix it, but it's still lacking, and no sources either. Please someone fix it. -Jaardon 23:50, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Will this do? It mentions the term repeatedly, links it to the usage of astronaut and as far as I can see it seems to be coming from a reliable source. I'll put it in for now and if anyone objects it can be removed at their discretion. --Candlewicke (Talk) 19:50, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

• "The word is a hybrid of the Chinese term "taikong" (space) and the Greek "naut" (traveler), or astronaut, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary." --Candlewicke (Talk) 20:03, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

"taikongren" and "astronaut" is use more often in south east asia. "taiko" sound more like "big brother. Don't even know there is "Taikonaut" until I read this page.Mclelun (talk) 04:12, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

• I also noticed that some users that edit this page seem to be for some reason against using "taikonaut" even though I found sources too. If it is in Concise Oxford English Dictionary doesn't that mean thats source enough to use it into the intro? I got flamed for suggesting that a few months ago too. I don't know why only astronaut or cosmonaut seem acceptable to the main editors of this article? Oddness. Cheers, Nesnad (talk) 05:53, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Man...seriously? "Taikonaut" isn't even a fucking word in English. If you're gonna make a proposal or try to make point, at least propose with the actual terms, 太空人 or 航天员. Don't make up some transliteration that's not even in the dictionaries. - M0rphzone (talk) 09:26, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

I did a minor overhaul to consolidate all of the etymology into a single paragraph in the overview, however I also specified how "cosmonaut" is largely a political term and that "taikonaut" is used somehwat informally; let me know if this violates any decisions made on this talk page Orchastrattor (talk) 19:24, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, Orchastrattor! I think your changes made a big improvement.

The one thing I think was missing was that the section about the word "cosmonaut" had the heading "Russian". I changed that to "Cosmonaut", and likewise with "Astronaut" and "Taikonaut". TypoBoy (talk) 21:54, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

History and general overhaul

Having a level 4 article classified as C class is honestly nothing short of an embarrassment, and I think the biggest problem is that this article just doesn't go into the history of manned spaceflight at all, its all just definitions and technicalities. There is a section on "milestones" but its formatted like a list and just makes the whole article read even more broken up and confusing. I probably won't have the time to write up a whole new section by myself but a good place to start would be pooling together a bunch of potential sources here so that we can use them later. Orchastrattor (talk) 21:06, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 September 2021

Please change "ESA envisions to recruit an astronaut with a physical disability" to "ESA envisions recruiting an astronaut with a physical disability". Bad grammar. 2001:BB6:4713:4858:7DCC:1F54:AB7A:19CD (talk) 12:49, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

 Done ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:57, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

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)