07-20-2021, 11:22 PM
By your definition, Alan Shepherd was not an astronaut. He had no control over the capsule during his suborbital flight. Neither was any number of payload specialists.
It would be better to use the NASA definition of Astronaut. The space agency will not call anyone an astronaut until they are assigned to an official mission and get to fly. You are an astronaut candidate before that time. So they are not technically astronauts as it was not a NASA mission.
Branson's flight did not get high enough to meet the criteria of space. So they missed out as well.
SpaceX crew made the height and were working with NASA, so they are Astronauts.
The crew of the Challenger were Astronauts because it was a NASA flight that had lifted off. Only two of the three Apollo 1 crewmembers were astronauts - Grissom and White had already flown to space previously. Chaffee had not flown and the mission had not yet started, so he was still a candidate.
But I digress.
It would be better to use the NASA definition of Astronaut. The space agency will not call anyone an astronaut until they are assigned to an official mission and get to fly. You are an astronaut candidate before that time. So they are not technically astronauts as it was not a NASA mission.
Branson's flight did not get high enough to meet the criteria of space. So they missed out as well.
SpaceX crew made the height and were working with NASA, so they are Astronauts.
The crew of the Challenger were Astronauts because it was a NASA flight that had lifted off. Only two of the three Apollo 1 crewmembers were astronauts - Grissom and White had already flown to space previously. Chaffee had not flown and the mission had not yet started, so he was still a candidate.
But I digress.