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#1431
I think you are looking at the wrong way. NASA and other governments look at Astronauts as a profession. Commercial airplane pilots look at it the same. You certainly wouldn't call anyone a pilot or even flight crew that flew as a passenger on a airplane.
There is already an established term for people that merely flew into space
Spaceflight participant is the term used by the NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, but who are not professional astronauts.
Until recently the only ones with astronauts were NASA and the military. It makes sense for rules to be enacted to reflect the fact that there are now:
1. Private companies flying their own spacecraft and "astronauts"
2. Private companies planning for space tourism
These possibilities did not exist twenty years ago.
I think it is important to distinguish between spacecraft pilots, space mission active participants, and people just along for the ride. Even with the FAA's new rule change their is still a lot of ambiguity and room for change. This will probably evolve and change in the future.
FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program
https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/...der_8800.2.pdf
United States Astronaut Badge
United States Astronaut Badge - Wikipedia
Commercial astronaut
Commercial astronaut - Wikipedia
Astronaut
Astronaut - Wikipedia
Spaceflight participant
Spaceflight participant - Wikipedia
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