VOA慢速英语2021--Who Is an Astronaut?

As more companies start selling tickets to travel into space, people are asking: Who gets to call themselves an astronaut?

It is no longer an easy question to answer. People who are very rich are able to pay to go into space.

Russian space officials have been calling them spaceflight participants for many years.

The new supervisor¹ of the U.S. space agency² NASA is Bill Nelson. He does not consider himself an astronaut although he spent six days in space in 1986. He was a congressman³ then.

He told The Associated Press that he believes the term "astronaut" should be for professionals.

Richard Garriott is a computer game developer. He paid a lot of money for his trip to the International Space Station in 2008 on a Russian spacecraft. He hates the term space tourist. He said in an email, "I am an astronaut." He said he trained for two years to go into space.

Axiom Space's Michael Lopez-Alegria is a former NASA astronaut. He will join three businessmen on a SpaceX spacecraft on a trip to the space station planned for January.

They each paid $55 million for the trip. Lopez-Alegria said they do not consider themselves space tourists since they will be doing research.

Recently, Axiom Space said there will be a second flight to the space station next year. Peggy Whitson will be on that flight. She is a retired⁴ NASA astronaut who has spent 665 days in space.

Whitson will bring John Shoffner. He is a businessman and race car driver from Knoxville, Tennessee. He is also paying about $55 million. Shoffner said he asked Peggy to make the training difficult for him. He said, "Make me an astronaut."

The word astronaut comes from the Greek words for star and sailor. The idea is easy to market and astronauts appear in movies and popular culture.

Jeff Bezos is the owner of the rocket company, Blue Origin. It will call future clients⁶ "astronauts." It is selling a place on its first spaceflight with people, planned for July. NASA even has a new term for this kind of trip: PAM for Private Astronaut Mission⁷.

Many individuals want to work as astronauts. More than 12,000 people applied⁸ to join NASA's upcoming class. Only about 12 will be chosen in December.

But many passengers are expected to travel into space soon. There will be Russian actress and movie director, Yulia Peresild, who will fly to the space station in October. And Japanese businessman, Yusaku Maezawa, will go in December with an assistant to document everything. In each case, there will be a professional astronaut supervising⁹ things. But, Blue Origin and SpaceX's spacecraft do not need pilots.

Asif Siddiqi is a history professor at Fordham University and the writer of several space books. He said it might be necessary to retire the term once hundreds if not thousands of people reach space. He questioned, "Are we going to call each and every one of them astronauts?"

Mike Mullane is a retired NASA astronaut. He suggests using astronaut first class, second class, third class. He said this could depend on the person's involvement.

However, Mullane noted¹⁰, "astronaut is not a copyrighted¹¹ word. So anybody who wants to call themselves an astronaut can call themselves an astronaut, whether they've been in space or not."

Words in This Story

ticket – n. piece of paper that allows you to see a show, participate in an event, travel on a vehicle, etc.

participant – n. a person who is involved in an activity or event

tourist – n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

client⁵ – n. a person who pays a professional person or organization for services

apply -–v. to formally ask, usually in writing, for a job, position, training, loan¹² or something similar

copyrighted – adj. not allowed to be copied without permission from the author or composer

1 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

2 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

3 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 client   

n.委托人，当事人，顾客

参考例句：

• She can't come to the telephone;she's serving a client.她不能来接电话，她正在接待一位顾客。
• The lawyer produced a clever defence of his client.律师机智地为委托人辩护。

6 clients   

n.顾客( client的名词复数 )；当事人；诉讼委托人；[计算机]客户端

参考例句：

• a lawyer with many famous clients 拥有许多著名委托人的律师
• She understood the importance of establishing a close rapport with clients. 她懂得与客户建立密切和谐的关系的重要性。

7 mission   

n.使命，任务，天职；代表团，使团

参考例句：

• He was charged with an important mission.他受委托承担一项重要使命。
• I'll leave you to undertake an important mission.我要让你承担一项重要使命。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 supervising   

v.监督，管理( supervise的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She had something to do in the house, supervising that native. 她待在家里，究竟还有点儿事情可以做做，可以监视那个土人。 来自辞典例句
• In addition, nuisance law fails to provide a systematic mechanism for supervising emissions. 另外，妨害法不能提供一个监督排放的系统性机制。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

11 copyrighted   

获得…的版权( copyright的过去式 )

参考例句：

• That magazine usurped copyrighted material. 那杂志盗用了版权为他人所有的素材。
• Why is it common for students to download copyrighted music? 为什麽学生下载有版权的音乐如同家常便饭？

12 loan   

n.贷款；借出的东西；借；vt.借出；贷予

参考例句：

• I asked the bank to help me with a loan.我请银行给我一笔贷款。
• Has the bank okayed your request for a loan?银行批准你的贷款要求了吗？