People will argue that Sharman was a cosmonaut because she went into space with the Soviet Union.
replyThe distinction is Cold War propaganda that has never made any sense to me. We have two English words to describe the same thing, but one is only used if the act was done or facilitated by Russia?
We also have taikonaut but it's not taken as seriously ;)
replyPeople will argue. ESPECIALLY on HN.
replyI've yet to see a discussion that doesn't have a major subthread on an apparently unrelated subject. This is the Internet's vacation spot for "Well, ackshually" interjections.
Per the unwritten guidelines, each thread must also contain at least one reference to Musk, AI, or Tim Cook.
Technically that is correct, because Helen Sharman was a cosmonaut rather than an astronaut or taikonaut.
replyBut NASA does that all the time. They recently claimed to perform the first flight and sound transmissions from another planet. The Soviet Venera missions had already done this during the 1980s from Venus. NASA performed the first powered flight on Mars.
I remember Tim Peake being a big thing, but I don't remember anyone saying he was first
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