{{Infobox Astronaut
| name		=Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr
| image		=Alan shepard.jpg
| type          =Astronaut
| nationality	=[[United States|American]]
| date_birth	=[[November 18]], [[1923]]
| date_death	=[[July 21]], [[1998]]
| place_birth	=[[Derry, New Hampshire]]
| place_death	=[[Pebble Beach, California]]
| occupation	=[[Test Pilot]]
| rank		=[[Rear Admiral]], [[United States Navy |USN]]
| selection	=[[List_of_astronauts_by_selection#1959|1959 NASA Group]]
| time		=9 d 0 h 17 min 26 s
| mission	=[[Mercury-Redstone 3|MR-3]], [[Apollo 14]]
| insignia	=[[Image:Freedom 7 insignia.jpg|20px]] [[Image:AP14nightingale.jpg|20px]]
|}}

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr
Nationality	American
Occupation	Test Pilot
Space career
Astronaut
Rank	Rear Admiral, USN
Time in space	9 d 0 h 17 min 26 s
Selection	1959 NASA Group
Missions	MR-3, Apollo 14
Mission insignia	File:AP14nightingale.jpg

There is a serious factual error in the template. The individual's nationality is used to determine whether they are an astronaut, cosmonaut, etc. Unfortunatly, it isn't that simple. For example an American flying on Soyuz is technically a cosmonaut, and a Russian flying on the Shuttle is technically an astronaut. Can somebody sort this out. Thanks --GW_Simulations_{|User Page | Talk | Contribs | Chess | E-mail} 12:51, 13 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• The nationality field doesn't determine the title of the individual. Philip Stevens 13:57, 13 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• I have had another look, and, whilst I can see now that I was wrong, I can also see that it is a very confusing system, so I recomend changing it to a single field into which the type of space traveller they are is inserted manually. --GW_Simulations_{|User Page | Talk | Contribs | Chess | E-mail} 21:40, 21 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• There seems to have been no objection, so I have done this. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 16:12, 27 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The type of space traveller is now manually entered, rather than using the awkward and misleading automated system.

To update it, please refer to this table

Note: The infoboxes as they are now are not always correct, - Americans who have flown on Soyuz are Cosmonauts, Russians who have flown on the Shuttle are Astronauts, Frenchmen, ?South?-Africans, and Malasians, are always Spationauts, Afronauts, and Angaskawen, regardless of what they have flown on. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 20:56, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What if they went up in a Soyuz but come back on the Space Shuttle? Gdavidp1

Why don't we just use English and call them all astronauts instead of being saddled with a Cold War relic usage (and a number of unused-in-actual-English-language-practice terms). Rmhermen 00:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Because they are not always astronauts. A person who has flown on a Russian spacecraft is as much a Cosmonaut as someone who has flown on a Soviet flight. I am Strongly opposed to the unnecessary Americanisation of Wikipedia, and I feel that it is important that we respect their national identities. This change was proposed, and after no objections were made, it was carried out. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 20:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't this still really misleading though? The first three in the table above are about what type of vehicle one has flown in, whereas the last two are about the nationality of the flyer. What, then, do we do about Mark Shuttleworth? He's a South African/British dual-national who flew on a Soyuz, so is he a Cosmonaut or an Afronaut? Confused! -- Hux 15:54, 22 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The space agencies cannot sort this out themselves. I've always assumed that the nationality overrides the spacecraft, on the grounds that France, South Africa, Malasia, etc do not have their own manned space programmes. Also, I believe Shuttleworth refers to himself as an Afronaut, so I would use this. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 19:15, 22 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why does this template say it needs updating? This is appears on hundreds of articles and the supposed problem is nowhere explained? Is this a deprecated template? What is the new one? Rmhermen 00:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Replace | USA=USA with | type =Astronaut or Cosmonaut - Gdavidp1 02:38, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is the current thinking for the case where a person has flown both on USA and USSR/Russion spaceflights (for example Sergei Krikalev). My personal feeling is that he is a Cosmonaut but I'd be hard pressed to defend that given that people of other nationalities that have flown on Soviet mission are called Cosmonauts (i.e. Franz Viehböck) irrespective of their actual nationality. Any suggestions on how to make this codify this (or are we just going to go with what sounds right)? ThreeBlindMice 20:40, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know. I suppose we could use both. --GW_Simulations_{User Page | Talk} 20:53, 8 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Example is Kenneth D. Bowersox. I'm adding both to update, but please re-update if the thinking changes on this. (An alternative would be that an American who flew on both USA and Russian missions would be considered an Astronaut, while a Russian who flew on both types of missions would be a Cosmonaut). FelineAvenger 23:37, 10 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another weird case for current guidelines: Edward Fincke. An American who has only flown on Soyuz and the ISS, but not the Shuttle. Under current guidelines, he'd only be a cosmonaut. I put him as both Astronaut and Cosmonaut. FelineAvenger 04:35, 16 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Continuing a discussion from Talk:Anousheh Ansari, I'm going to bring some sources to bear on this issue and potential problems the template may have.

1. The word "astronaut" is a generic term for a person who travels in space. It may be freely translated as "cosmonaut", "spationaut", "taikonaut", and so forth. Different conventions apply for different home countries. Russians retain the name "cosmonaut", while Europeans traveling through ESA are translated to "astronauts". The term "astronaut" is used in the Outer Space Treaty to refer to all space travelers (although it presumed that all would be official representatives of their nations).
2. The word "Astronaut" and "Cosmonaut" etc. are also titles referring to members of their nation's "Astronaut/* Corps".
3. From NASA usage, an astronaut or cosmonaut does not change their title by flying on another nation's craft. An astronaut launching to ISS on a Soyuz is still an astronaut. References to "cosmonaut training" (and vice versa) indicate that it's considered a skill rather than a title.
4. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines astronautical flight as anything exceeding the Karman line or 100km altitude. The FAI has also (post-Tito) offered a definition of Astronaut in its Sporting Code as both "crew members and to scientific personnel aboard the spacecraft playing an active part in the mission during the flight." The 100km line is respected by Russia, who terms members of its corps "test-cosmonaut" until they fly. Other agencies do not appear to follow this and simply certify people based on training.
5. NASA and Russia both have launched individuals who were not members of the astronaut/* corps: payload specialists and research cosmonauts. Other "guests" have been given training and official designation as astronauts/* but are still considered to have earned the title. Jean-Loup Chrétien, for example, was a cosmonaut for Russia and an astronaut for the US, while remaining a French spationaute.
6. NASA and Russia agreed in 2002 not to call space tourists astronauts or cosmonauts, but space flight participants. (In a prior ruling, NASA had termed Dennis Tito a "nonprofessional cosmonaut".)

I believe we can settle the questions raised earlier in this section regarding Reiter and Lopez-Alegria. They're both astronauts by convention of their agencies.

But I think we may need to define acceptable values for the field "type" and "rank". Right now space tourists are inconsistently marked: three have "cosmonaut" in the type field, one has nothing. If "type" means "title", this is incorrect. Per the [[WP:NC(CN}|common-name rule]] ... I'm not sure. Most Western media have adopted the term "space tourist" over any other term. Potential other uses for the field could be "private", "space tourist", or "space flight participant". (If the third, what do we put in rank? That's the one that wikilinks.) --Dhartung | Talk 06:40, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• I think there are two solutions:
  • Use only the astronaut term as a term established in English language for all those people.
  • Use both terms based on official qualification/rank of a person. So a person travelled in space of received special training could be both cosmonaut, astronaut or neither, depending on their qualifications, official status and certificates. At least in Russia there are official terms (qualifications) "pilot-cosmonaut", "cosmonaut-tester" etc. But then we maybe should use not generic, but more specific term "pilot-cosmonaut" for example instead simply "cosmonaut" as any Russian encyclopedy does.--Nixer 07:57, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This section of the template makes sense for career astronauts/cosmonauts, etc., but is misleading when the person concerned is a space tourist since it wrongly implies they have finished with whatever job they were doing previously. However, I'm not sure how to resolve this problem other than by removing the field entirely. Any ideas? -- Hux 15:35, 22 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]