With Private Space Flight On the Rise, Who Gets to Be Called ‘Astronaut?’

On Sept. 15, if all goes according to plan, Jared Isaacman—the billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments—and three other private citizens will strap into a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft—all four seats paid for by Isaacman—and blast off for orbit on the mission dubbed Inspiration4. Three days later they will return to Earth. Unlike most of the rest of us, they will have spent time off of the planet. But will that earn them the label of “astronaut?” Time was, it was easy to recognize an astronaut. They were all test pilots, they wore silvery space suits and signature buzz cuts and they had perfect fly-boy names like Deke and Gus and Al and Gordo. That they were all white males was often overlooked in the fawning media coverage of the time, but that changed, happily if belatedly, as women and people of color joined the corps in later years. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Now things are changing again—fast. With the opening of the private space sector, all manner of people who don’t write the word “astronaut” on the occupation line of their tax return are queuing up to fly. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, both of which launched high-profile missions involving their respective founders Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson earlier this summer, aim to begin regularly carrying paying customers on brief, 11-minute suborbital flights soon. And SpaceX is selling seats not just to Isaacman and his Inspiration4 crew—the ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Space Special Project Source Type: news