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T.S. Ryker's avatar

Can't comment on this as I have an NDA and great respect for the engineers involved. Just wanted to say thanks for cutting through the cultural clutter to give an earnest assessment of the term 'astronaut.'

Space tourism has been happening for decades now. Just ask Dennis Tito, Richard Garriott or Charles Simonyi. Nothing in standard definitions mentions orbital velocity either. Could communications on the event been messaged better? Sure. It's also gross that after several previous human flights, it's the all-women mission that gets all the pressure.

Just my $0.02 Cheers

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Joseph L. Wiess's avatar

Nah. They were tourists, just like Bill Shatner was (God bless him, but he’s no astronaut.)

Don’t feel too bad, there were times when I thought the same about the crews of the shuttles. In the end, they became glorified space truckers. They got the job done, but it became routine. Launch a shuttle, carry out a mission, put a payload in orbit, land, refuel the rockets, attach the boosters, launch another one. I watched every NASA Mission, but even they treated it like it was just a job.

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