In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) are awarded astronaut wings.Īs of 17 November 2016, 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km (62 mi) or more in altitude, of whom 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi). The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, with some focus on the point where the atmosphere becomes so thin that centrifugal force, rather than aerodynamic force, carries a significant portion of the weight of the flight object. With the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. Since 1961, 600 astronauts have flown in space. In China, the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and their foreign counterparts are all officially called hángtiānyuán ( 航天员, meaning 'heaven navigator' or literally ' heaven-sailing staff'). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin 'tàikōng' ( 太空), meaning 'space'), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. 'Astronaut' technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality or allegiance however, astronauts fielded by Russia or the Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian 'kosmos' (космос), meaning 'space', also borrowed from Greek) in order to distinguish them from American or otherwise NATO-oriented space travellers.

Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists. NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II using a Manned Maneuvering Unit outside Space Shuttle Challenger on shuttle mission STS-41-B in 1984.Īn astronaut (from the Greek 'astron' (ἄστρον), meaning 'star', and 'nautes' (ναύτης), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft.

اغنية who are you school 2015