Spationaut

A Spationaute is a member of the crew of a spaceship, i.e. of an apparatus designed to evolve/move in the space.

The women and the men who travel in space (or in cosmos) are designated differently according to the power for which they work: cosmonauts for the Russia, astronauts for the the United States and the Europe, and taïkonautes for the China.

If the 1000 {{E}} team member flew away the December 10th 2006, less than 500 people different - at January 1st 2007 - left in the space since the beginning from the Space conquest in the Années 1960, and some among them come from country Francophone S:

Christian Jean-Wolf, first French in space in 1982;
Marc Garneau, Canadian first (and Québécois) in space in 1984 and chairs Canadian Space agency of November 2001 February 2006.
Patrick Baudry (France) in 1985
Michel Tognini (France) in 1992;
Claude Nicollier, Swiss first in space in 1992;
Jean-Pierre Haigneré in 1993, which forms with Claudie Haigneré the French space couple;
Jean-François Clervoy (France) in 1994;
Claudie Haigneré, first Frenchwoman in space in 1996;
Jean-Jacques Favier (France) with the Shuttle Columbia in 1996;
Léopold Eyharts (France) with the station Mir in 1998;
Roberta Bondar, Canadian first to be gone in space in 1992.
Julie Payette, Canadian first to have taken part in a space mission on the International space station and first Québécois in space in 1999;
Philippe Perrin (France) in 2002;

Etymology

the term cosmonaut is translated Russian kosmonavt (космонавт), coming from the Greek words kosmos which means “universe” and nautes , meaning “navigator”. It is the name used by the Russians but also by the French having flown with the Russians, for example.
the term astronaut also comes from the Greek : ástron meaning “star” and nautes , “navigator”. It is the name carried by the American astronauts like Europeans (of which the French having flown with the Americans or the Russians). Europeans use the equivalent in English language, astronaut .
the term spationaut is a hybrid word, coming at the same time from the Latin spatium meaning “space”, and from the Greek nautes , “navigator”. It was used when the French wanted, through the Hermes program, to have an autonomy in space. It belongs to the Cité of the space which will use it always more within the framework of its activities of " tourism spatial" in Toulouse.
the term taïkonaute comes from the Chinese tàikōngrén (太空人) literally meaning “man of the great vacuum” (of tàikōng : “great vacuum” and rén : “man”). However, the professionals of the Chinese space sector prefer to appoint their spationauts by the term yǔhángyuán (宇航员), literally meaning “navigator of the universe” (of yǔ : “universe”, háng : “to sail” and yuán : “member”).

Random links:

General strike of 1918 in Switzerland | In Trance | June in sociology | Goreeni | HongKong - Poland in football