Trump official to Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée: “You cannot identify as an astronaut” | It turns out the FAA now takes no role in identifying who is an astronaut.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/so-is-katy-perry-now-an-astronaut-or-what/
Trump official to Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée: “You cannot identify as an astronaut” | It turns out the FAA now takes no role in identifying who is an astronaut.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/so-is-katy-perry-now-an-astronaut-or-what/
34 Comments
Just like when Bezos and Shatner went to space; you’re space tourists and nothing more.
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Trump is a dumb fuck but he has a point. They are space tourists not astronauts
Trump pissing off Bezos would be a pretty funny showdown
A Trump official took valuable taxpayer funded time to discuss what Katy Perry calls herself?
Sounds like an employee DOGE needs to fire.
The only experiment they performed was to see who sucked up the most amount of air in 11 minutes. It was a tie.
Okay, but does anyone officially regulate who can identify themselves as “Astronaut?”
That is nothing new, although I assumed NASA defined it, not the FAA. Everyday the sun sets it is Trump’s fault. Got old a while back along with nothing being Sleepy Joe’s fault.
Sincerely: Who gives a shit?
I miss having a government whose administrative officials did not spend their time picking dumbass culture-war fights with fucking pop stars. Don’t they have other shit to do?
Yeah, it was changed when Bezos did his flight, to differentiate between real astronauts and tourists. It wasn’t done by Trump or his admin
https://www.space.com/faa-commercial-astronaut-wings-rule-change
Edit to add in the actual list: Those who earned their Commercial Astronaut Wings (which they stopped giving out physically) have asterisks.
https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight/recognition
This is some playground bs right here. Like, it doesn’t even rise to middle school levels of immaturity. If the FAA awarded wings for crossing the middle school immaturity line, the SECTRANS would not qualify for them.
Commercial astronaut wings were always just a gimmick anyways. The FAA should have never gotten involved in any of that.
But I am an astronaut so not sure what they’re gonna say about that.
Space Tourist would be a more accurate terminology for them. And that’s not to degrade their adventure, but an Astronaut usually brings to mind someone who has spent years and years of their life studying and training and spending actual time in space doing work. Space Tourist seems more fitting for these short time travellers.
If Katy’s an Astronaut then the kids dowm at the local pool passing their swim tests in 4 feet of water are also commercial divers 🤣
We are all on earth, and the earth is in space. Therefore we are all in space, and are all astronauts. And baby, you’re a firework.
Trump and his “officials” are obsessed with who identifies as what. Especially with things they don’t understand like science, space, or American values.
A sub-orbital pop-up ride makes you an astronaut as much as being airline passenger makes you a pilot.
As far as the pros are concerned, passengers are the payload, just “Spam in the can”.
In NASA’s 2021 astronaut selection process, over 12,000 people applied, but only *10 candidates* were chosen. This means the selection ratio was about 1 in 1,200: that is how rigorous and selective the process is. Once selected, those 10 will have many years of meetings, training and simulators before they fly.
Anybody who flies above 80 kilometers is an astronaut in the military sense of the word
They can identify as they want but nobody is obliged to affirm their identities.
It does not matter what the self-identity is.
Who. Gives. A. Fuck. People are starving all over. Katy Perry. Katy. Perry. Hot n Cold
So, there’s a definition of the word astronaut. Do they meet the definition of astronaut? Yes? So they’re astronauts.
What’s the next inane thing that I have to type about that came out of the Trump administration’s pie hole?
I thought a pilot had to drive this vehicle into space. In order for someone to be an astronaut, not someone in pilots from the land.
If they’re astronauts, then I’m a professional ghost hunter because I’ve been on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland several times.
“Cosmopolitanauts” would be a more fitting title for those two
Elons buddy doesn’t like other space programs? Shocking
Kind of like how an astrologist isn’t an astronomer
Tackling the big problems of the day, one at a time
Astronaut is an education.
Same as if i called myself a Vet. Just becouse i operate random animals it dosnt make me one.
An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft.
Looks like we don’t need the FAA to determine if this bunch of adventurers were astronauts or not. There is nothing wrong with being an adventurer
It’s wild the amount of freak out people are having over this.
Everybody knows they’re not astronauts in the true sense. Pretty sure they’re aware it’s “astronaut” with a big ass asterisk and they use the term for fun.
If you think they’re literally using the marketing term astronaut equal to real astronaut then it explains why people believe Trump’s bullshit and pyramid schemes still exist.
An astronaut is a profession. You get paid to go to space, you don’t pay to go.
It’s like going on a cruise and calling yourself a sailor
There is some height u have to get to for it to cross the astronaut threshold. Not sure if they went that high or not.