Talk:touronaut

I spoke with several parties asking if touronaut was the correct word to be used to describe a space tourist. Although I am still waiting for response from many, Collins dictionary told me they were monitoring the word and were thinking of placing the word in their dictionary. They said "a new word required a certain amount of citations from various places to be cosidered a new word". Over time this will take place and there are a few thousand hits on google already.

Jamie Sloan of the National Space Centre sent me the following email - "The word ‘Touronaut’ is a new word invented by the media to describe space tourists. It is word we hear often but not yet used by any space authorities, but then again neither is ‘space tourist’. The term ‘astronaut’ is generally reserved for professional space travellers and both NASA and Russian Federal Space Agency use the term ‘spaceflight participant’ to refer to any other person aboard a space flight. Many space flight participants dislike the term space tourist. This is because it can detract from the intensive 6 month training they must undergo and their role on the mission. For example, millionaire games designer Richard Garriott spent 12 days in space during October 2008, joining a crew change mission to the International Space Station. Whilst aboard he performed an educational role by completing simple experiments. However, when space travel hits general tourism i think the word will become more common place."

There is a distinct difference between 'touronaut' and 'spaceflight participant' because the new type of tourist will be sightseeing and not having to go through intense training. I think 'Touronaut' deserves a place on Wiktionary. In 20 years from now there will be more tourists been to space than all the astronauts in the whole of space travel.By giving the word place we are creating more citations. Touronaut is a word in use and gaining ground so lets give this new word a helpful landing in the dictionary.


 * Two-and-a-half years later this still doesn't meet WT:CFI from Google Books or newsgroups. I can see a few scant uses in other media. Equinox ◑ 19:48, 25 September 2011 (UTC)