What do you call someone who hasn’t been to space?
An astro-not.
It says quite a lot that this “discussion” completely ignored every space tourist after the first, right up to the point that a group of women made the trip.
completely ignored
Obviously that’s an exaggeration.
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57950149
- https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4227/1
- https://indianalawreview.com/2023/09/25/one-giant-leap-space-tourists-as-astronauts-an-analysis-of-the-outer-space-treaty-and-rescue-agreement-using-the-vienna-conventions-treaty-interpretation-method/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceflight/comments/oo1jli/can_we_call_them_astrotourists_instead_of/
It says quite a lot
Does it? What if a thorough media analysis were to show that the level of discussion of this topic is roughly in proportion to the level of coverage of each mission?
Or that it is related to the extent to which these people are getting described as astronauts? For example, Shatner got a decent amount of coverage, but my guess is that fewer than half of the articles about his trip actually described him as an astronaut. E.g. NPR
You don’t think Bezos only did this for the “Female Empowerment” publicity checkbox? You’ll give him the benefit of doubt?
Of course he did. Everything billionaires do is for their own benefit first.
Also, are they crew or passengers?
Cargo.
Reminds me of a certain astronaut who got nicknamed “ballast”. I believe he eventually became NASA administrator… :)
