h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

:On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:54:27 -0600, in a place far, far away, Joe
:Strout made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
:way as to indicate that:
:
:In article ,
: h (Rand Simberg) wrote:
:
: Is that why the FAA calls them Astronauts (and grants them astronaut
: wings -- c.f. Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie), too?
:
: If you mean the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA has no
: opinion on the matter, and does not grant anyone astronaut wings.
:
:From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Melvill:
:"In a ceremony two hours after landing, Melvill was awarded his
:astronaut wings, specifically the FAA Commercial Astronaut badge, the
:first wings awarded for a non-government space program and the first for
:a spaceplane flight since the X-15 flights of the 1960s."
:
:From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut_Badge:
:"The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has granted commercial
:astronaut wings to private pilots who have performed a successful
:spaceflight."
:
:If you were Henry, I think I'd be getting a T-shirt. Or is Wikipedia
:wrong in both places?
:
:I think the latter is highly likely.
:
:Let's see (google, google).
:
:Maybe they mean FAI?
:
:http://records.fai.org/astronautics/current.asp?id=13
:
:It doesn't say anything specifically about awarding wings, but that's
:the organization that certifies such things. They were present at the
:flights to do so, I'm quite confident, as part of the prize rules.

Maybe you should have tried a different (google, google) on the
assumption that it was correct rather than trying to prove it
incorrect? I did a quick google and found things on the FAA web site
about them issuing astronaut wings:

http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/...fm?newsId=8023

# June 21, 2004 — AST [part of the FAA] awards Mike Melvill the first
commercial astronaut wings for his successful flight of SpaceShipOne.
# October 4, 2004 — The XPrize, an international competition
established to award private industry a $10 million award for
completing two successful commercial human space flights in the span
of two weeks, is awarded to Scaled Composites for its successful
flights of SpaceShipOne. Brian Binnie, the pilot of the vehicle, is
awarded FAA's second set of commercial astronaut wings.


There are numerous others from both faa.gov and state.gov.


--
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the
truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
-- Thomas Jefferson