
Astronauts enter China's space station [video] - ehxor
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37699910?ocid=socialflow_twitter
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jcoffland
China has now done 6 crewed missions to space in the last 3 years. In that
time, Russia has had 13 manned missions many of which NASA astronauts have
hitched a ride on. NASA is still on the ground since discontinuing the shuttle
program in 2011.

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yitchelle
With so much at stake, is it possible for all nations to play together and
strive for the better good when it comes to space exploration?

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TeMPOraL
Only in movies. A lot of people (including poliicians deciding about treaties
and budgets) do not believe there's really anything at stake, and instead
think of space exploration as a _very expensive_ nerd hobby with some possible
military applications.

~~~
jcoffland
And ironically those same people believe their silly little political games on
earth are what's really important.

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seanmcdirmid
Aren't Chinese space travelers called Taikonauts? The title make it sounds
like Americans are invading China's space station.

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leojg
I think so... anyways I find stupid the need to differentiate the "space
worker(?)" by country of origin. They all do the same awesome thing.

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seanmcdirmid
The Russians invented the job, yet us Americans decided to go with Astronaut
rather than Cosmonaut.

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rakoo
And we French people wanted to go with our American friends but didn't want to
anger the Russian giant... so we went with our own "spationaute"

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grecy
I think it's fantastic to see another country having the ability to send
humans into orbit.

Currently there are only two - Russia and China - so it's great we can all
live vicariously through their achievements!

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vinchuco
Initially read this as "US astronauts enter China's space station". That would
have been interesting.

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freyfogle
Valid confusion. Correct headline would be "Taikonauts enter China's space
station"

Cosmonauts = Russian Taikonauts = Chinese Astronauts = Western

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lmm
Can we stop this? It's the modern-day version of the victorian collective noun
parlour game, and just as stupid.

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kobeya
Then we should stop using the inaccurate "astronaut" and call them all
cosmonauts.

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Hondor
Astronaut is the original English word. Cosmonaut is a transliteration from
the Russian word for astronaut. So if we're speaking English, we should use
astronaut regardless of the country they're from. Otherwise we're forced to
invent silly new words that nobody understands like taikonaut and what will we
call Indian astronauts or whoever's next?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Terminology)

~~~
kuschku
The argument is that Astronaut means "sailor of the stars", but "Cosmonaut"
means "sailor of the cosmos".

As they’re obviously not sailing between stars, but in the cosmos, Cosmonaut
is obviously the correct term.

~~~
Hondor
Not according to dictionary.com:

"Astro- a combining form with the meaning “pertaining to stars or celestial
bodies, or to activities, as spaceflight, taking place outside the earth's
atmosphere,” used in the formation of compound words:"

It sounds like the Greek(?) meaning has been lost now in English, which is
fine since it's a different language. Astronomers still sometimes look at
other planets afterall.

~~~
kuschku
According to that, literally means figuratively, too.

Sometimes linguistic prescriptivism is necessary to keep a language actually
understandable, and to ensure it makes sense, and doesn’t just become
thousands of independent statements that you have to learn by heart.

~~~
areyousure
That ship sailed long ago.

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505
Are the docks compatible with Soyuz?

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miaoever
no.

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manarth
It sounds like there are mixed opinions on that - the Chinese docking system
is reportedly a clone of the Russian APAS-89/APAS-95 docking system (which is
also in use on the ISS).

So it's possible, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer at the
moment.

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chiph
I would have thought there would have been a technology transfer amongst the
spacefaring nations, so that _just in case_ they could dock with each other.

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manarth
That's basically the history of the APAS docking system [1], which was co-
developed by American and Soviet engineers.

So why isn't it universal? As usual, XKCD has a compelling explanation:
[https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynous_Peripheral_Attach_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynous_Peripheral_Attach_System)

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dbosch
they are not "astronauts", but taïkonauts. The chinese term for going into
space. Astronauts are for US. Cosmonauts for Russians. and Spationauts for
Europeans.

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Normal_gaussian
They are astronauts. Your definitions are off

[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/astronaut](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/astronaut)

[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cosmonaut](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cosmonaut)

[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/taikonaut](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/taikonaut)

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astronaut](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/astronaut)

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmonaut](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/cosmonaut)

[ Merriam-Webster doesn't define Taïkonaut ]

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dbosch
Actually, the Russian call their space people "Cosmonauts". "Astronaut" has
been chosen by NASA, while the USSR chose "Cosmonaut". But you're right
regarding the chinese. They are not called Taikonaut in their own country. But
neither "astronaut". link :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut)
Check the terminology section.

I just wanted to highligth that only NASA (or English speaker world) call
their astronaut "astronaut". In europe, we call them spationauts. And in
russia, they call them "cosmonauts".

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wodenokoto
The Russian calls lots of things differently than the Americans do.

Also, nobody in Denmark says spationaut. We say Astronaut, so not all of
Europe and not only English speakers.

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dbosch
I do hear you, buddy. I'm french, and I do say "Astronaut" when I speaking
about space. I'm just stating that in newspaper (not always), they say
"spationaut". It's just how it's supposed to be said. But not everyone is
following this. And it's ok. I was just highlighting the fact that there is a
different name for people going to space regarding the country they are from.
That's all.

But yeah, the american word it has probably won in the popular culture and in
the day-to-day language.

Sorry. I didn't want to sound like Mr. know it all.

