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Astronaut
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<p>An astronaut (from the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greek/LIK7NlUh">Ancient Greek</a> ἄστρον (<i>astron</i>), meaning 'star', and ναύτης (<i>nautes</i>), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a <a href="/facts/List_of_human_spaceflight_programs/eHfMynwR">human spaceflight program</a> to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a <a href="/facts/Spacecraft/YQqQaUw0">spacecraft</a>. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and <a href="/facts/Space_tourism/fMK9CcnM">tourists</a>. </p><p>"Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by <a href="/facts/Russia/jfkCwyxn">Russia</a> or the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek κόσμος). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the <a href="/facts/Standard_Chinese/ofl48GA8">Mandarin</a> "tàikōng" (太空), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China, the <a href="/facts/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Astronaut_Corps/rMGrJXY6">People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps</a> <a href="/facts/List_of_Chinese_astronauts/Y4bMPJbl">astronauts</a> and their foreign counterparts are all officially called <i>hángtiānyuán</i> (航天员, meaning "heaven navigator" or literally "<a href="/facts/Spaceflight/zPrnATzo">heaven-sailing</a> staff"). </p><p>Since 1961 and as of 2021, 600 astronauts have flown in space. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of the privately funded <a href="/facts/SpaceShipOne/80LUjFgH">SpaceShipOne</a> in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the <a href="/facts/Commercial_astronaut/D5luBNfP">commercial astronaut</a>. </p>