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Space nomenclature race hots up
By Kiron Kasbekar | 26 Mar 2024
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The Soviet Union was there first, achieving the milestone of sending Yuri Gagarin into space first, and called its space travelers cosmonauts, and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians, the prime movers of the Soviet space program, have continued with that term. The Americans, ever-reluctant to accept that someone else could have done anything before them or better than them, refused to use that phrase when they launched their own space program very soon after the Soviets did.
First human to travel in space, Yuri Gagarin, with wife in 1964
The French, ever-reluctant to be seen as followers of the Anglo-Saxon world or the world east of their territory, decided to call their space travelers ‘spationaut’. And perhaps was a convenient thing, for French whatever-nauts rode into space first on Soviet Soyuz craft and then on American STS ones.
The Chinese, much later entrants to the space race, didn’t want to concede any ground to the Russians or Americans. They decided to call their space travelers ‘taikonaut’ drawing from Chinese as well as Greek roots.
Universal scope
The word ‘cosmonaut’ comes from the Greek ‘cosmos’, meaning ‘universe’. The term ‘cosmos’ encompasses everything beyond Earth, including stars, planets, and the vast expanse of space.
The word ‘astronaut’, on the other hand, is derived from the Greek word ‘astron’, meaning ‘star’. While its achievements have been impressive all right, space travel hasn't reached stars yet, making ‘astronaut’ a kind of a boast not backed up by reality.
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian orthopedic surgeon who traveled in outer space
The word ‘cosmos’ has been used synonymously with ‘space’ for centuries. If you ask me, there was no need, really, for the Americans to avoid the word ‘cosmonaut’ and use ‘astronaut’ instead. After all the Soviets had not claimed a patent or copyright on the word. All that’s been achieved is confusion.
Now we have at least four names for the same kind of work – cosmonauts, astronauts, spationauts’ and taikonauts’. Hey! My Word dictionary doesn’t even accept those last two words, and has underlined them in red, with no suggestion for an alternative.
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon in his mid-thirties, has knoa wn as ‘Angkasawan’ (the Malay word for cosmonaut, astronaut, spationaut and taikonaut), after he became the first Malaysian to go into space. Sheikh got his medical degree in surgery from Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, in Karnataka state in India, after which he got an advanced degree in orthopedic surgery from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (the National University of Malaysia). [Also see box below]
The space name race
So think about what would happen when India launches its own space crew into outer space (remember, until now only one Indian citizen has traveled into space –Squadron Leader (Wing Commander when he retired) Rakesh Sharma, winner of the Ashoka Chakra, who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3rd April 1984.
Wing Commander when he retired) Rakesh Sharma, India’s one and only space traveler so far
So what do you think India will call its own space men and women? Although no name has been formalized yet, but two names have been floated: vyomanauts and gaganauts.
I wonder if they might have chosen ‘juggernaut’ instead – would have been hugely impressive.
Actually, no. I think all space travelers from earth should be called cosmonauts. The Russians might protest. And so might the others for other reasons. Let them!
What do you think?
Sheikh Muszaphar was not the first Muslim to have traveled to outer space. Before him, Muslim cosmonauts and astronauts from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates had traveled in space.
A year-wise list:
Saudi Arabia (1985, and two astronauts in 2023), Syria (1987), Azerbaijan (1987 and 1990), Afghanistan (1988), Kazakhstan (1991, 1998 and 2001), Kyrgyzstan (1998 and 2004), the USA (born in Iran, in 206). After Malaysia's Sheikh Muszaphar (2007) there were, Kazakhstan (2015), United Arab Emirates (2019 and 2023), Egypt (2022), Pakistan (2023), and Turkey (2024).
Anousheh Ansari in the ISS
There were four Muslim women, from Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who traveled in space. The first of them, Anousheh Ansari, an American of Iranian origin, traveled on an American spaceship as a tourist!
When Ansari, an Iranian who had settled in America and runs a successful software company, traveled in space there were no religious overtones to her story.
But when Sheikh Muszaphar rose into the skies he created a brand new trend. His time space travel happened during the last part of Ramadan, the month of fasting and prayer, the Islamic National Fatwa Council decided that since he could not fast, they should draw up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space.
The 18-page guidebook is titled Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah)at the International Space Station. It contained details on how to pray in a low-gravity environment, how to locate Mecca from the International Space Station, how to determine prayer times, and issues related to fasting, which was a never-before thing since one day/night cycle in the orbit of the ISS happened every 90 minutes!
I am not clear how exactly that was sorted out, but what is known is that Sheikh Muszaphar celebrated Eid ul-Fitr aboard the station, and shared satay and cookies with the rest of the crew on 13th October 2007 to mark the end of Ramadan.
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