yuhangyuan

[mmcirvin]

China's first manned space mission may launch within the next couple of weeks.

The official Chinese word for an astronaut is "yuhangyuan", but some space buffs have been calling them "taikonauts" for years. Can't we just drop the use of different words for astronauts launched by different countries, and call them all "astronauts" as long as we're using English? The astronaut/cosmonaut usage is an awkward Sixties Space Race relic, not something you'd want to extend arbitrarily into a future in which all sorts of entities may launch people into space.

Comments

[jwgh]

At my last job we had a Russian intern who many people in the department called 'cosmonaut'. She never really understood why; it would, I guess, be like me going to Russia and everyone calling me 'astronaut' with no explanation and for no apparent reason.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Another thing-- the astronaut/cosmonaut usage has gotten terribly confused ever since the US and Russia started performing most of their manned space operations cooperatively, with astronauts from both countries going up on common vehicles and living in the same space station. Nobody seems to agree on whether the word to use comes from whose vehicle you're on, or which program you initially trained in. It's obviously not personal nationality, since both programs have been launching people from third countries for decades.

Also, here's a small mystery: When I took the Job-O career compatibility test back in high school, the listed name for a space traveler was "cosmonaut". Did Commies infiltrate the Job-O???

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Anything that ends in -O is commie related.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

The term makes me think of a Japanese man traveling into space on top of a giant drum.

[(Anonymous)]

Why should it be "astronaut"? It's kind of a stupid word. Name another "-naut", outside of Greek mythology (which is hopelessly Euro-weeny-ish). No, I'm sorry, whatever examples you just thought of are not valid for reasons to obvious to go into here, unless you said "afronaut", which is a fine word, and one I could certainly get behind. "-naut" is a silly suffix in all other situations.

How about "Space Ranger"? "Star (Wo)Man?" "Galactic Sojourner?" "Skyy Walker?" "Space Cadet?" "Sailor on the Cosmic Seas?" There are a number of wonderful terms for "a person who travels in space", none of which are America-centric, and any of which are far smoother than anything the Europeans are going to come up with. (Let me guess: "Euronaut"? Yawn.) Let alone the Chinese, Indians, Russians, and other potential space powers so backward and contemptable and foreign that just thinking about them makes me want to move to the Moon.

-Andrew N

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

We can just call them all "Sailor Moon" and be done with it.

[(Anonymous)]

Done.

-AN

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Since we're not actually sending anyone out into space these days, but rather sending people just outside the atmoshere so they can do stuff with test tubes and bunsen burners and things, we should call them Orbit Weenies or something.