On 14 Apr, 16:19, Fred J. McCall wrote:
"Alex Terrell" wrote:

:On 14 Apr, 10:17, (Derek Lyons) wrote:
:
: You call them 'astronauts' because of the lingering effects of the
: Steely Eyed Missile Man - and because it would spoil your fantasy of a
: Glorious Future. We don't call passengers on an aircraft 'airmen', or
: passengers on a ocean liner 'seamen'.
:
:
:Bigelow will call them Astronauts because people will pay more to be
:an astronaut than they will to be a passenger, or customer.

You call them 'astronauts' because they fit the definition. I'll
simply note that all the astronauts to date have largely been
'passengers', since the vehicle does virtually all of the work.

Weird - for once I partly agree with you. That said some NASA
passenger will now drive 2,000 miles through the night to kill you for
your words.

Though to be fair, most astronauts are "mission technicians" or
"mission scientists", and highly skilled, or perhaps over-skilled.