Now, in bestowing the “astronaut wings” upon Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, all distinguished test pilots of the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi prompts contemplation on their potential status as India’s premier astronauts. Yet, a nuanced revelation unfolds – Nair, Krishnan, Pratap, and Shukla are poised not to be India’s inaugural astronauts but, intriguingly, the world’s inaugural vyomanauts.
This nomenclature aligns with the tradition of categorizing spacefarers based on their national origin or linguistic roots. Such a practice is deeply rooted in the historical tapestry of human space exploration programs, wherein each country with an indigenous space initiative adopts a specific term reflective of linguistic and cultural nuances.
India, standing as the fourth nation following the United States, the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or contemporary Russia, and China, to develop an autonomous human space travel initiative, embraces the term “vyomanauts” in consonance with this tradition. The United States designates its spacefarers as astronauts, Russia refers to theirs as cosmonauts, and China dubs its space voyagers taikonauts.
The convention of labeling spacefarers based on national origin or language finds its origins in the Cold War-era space race between the United States and the USSR. During the embryonic phase of human space exploration, each nation forged its distinct human spaceflight program, with the terminology chosen for astronauts mirroring national identity, cultural pride, and the geopolitical climate.
The United States inaugurated its human spaceflight initiative under the auspices of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The term “astronaut” was chosen, drawing inspiration from Greek roots, symbolizing America’s commitment to peaceful celestial exploration. In Greek, “astron” conveys star, while “nautes” denotes sailor, collectively translating “astronaut” as a “star sailor.”
The NASA Administrator at the time, T. Keith Glennan, and his Deputy Administrator, Hugh Dryden, deliberated on whether crew members of spacecraft should be labeled astronauts or cosmonauts. Dryden favored “cosmonaut,” asserting that flights would traverse the broader cosmos, while the “astro” prefix suggested a more specific journey to the stars. However, the majority of NASA Space Task Group members favored “astronaut,” a preference that endured through common usage as the accepted American term.
The term “astronaut” finds credit in American writer Neil R. Jones’s 1930 short story “The Death’s Head Meteor,” though its roots trace back even further. For instance, Percy Greg employed it in 1880 in his book “Across the Zodiac,” where “astronaut” referred to a spacecraft. J.H. Rosny aîné, in his 1925 work “Les Navigateurs de l’infini,” utilized the term “astronautique” (astronautics). It’s conceivable that the term drew inspiration from “aeronaut,” an archaic word denoting an air traveler coined in 1784 for balloonists. An early instance of “astronaut” in the non-fiction realm appears in Eric Frank Russell’s poem “The Astronaut,” published in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society.
As per convention, a spacefarer affiliated with the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its precursor, the Soviet space program) is referred to as a cosmonaut in English texts. This term is an Anglicized rendition of the Russian “kosmonavt,” where “cosmos” signifies space, and “nautes” (borrowed from Greek) conveys sailor. Hence, “cosmonaut” translates to a “space sailor” or “cosmic traveler.”
In April 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union etched his name in history as the first human to journey into space. Aboard Vostok 1, his spacecraft circled Earth at an astonishing speed of 27,400 kmph, with the entire flight lasting 108 minutes. Notably, Vostok’s reentry was under the precise control of a computer.
The subsequent month, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard ascended to the status of the first American astronaut and the second human in space. Piloting the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7, he undertook a 490-km, 15-minute suborbital flight.
China ventured into the realm of human space exploration with the launch of its inaugural crewed mission, Shenzhou 5, on October 15, 2003. This mission bore Yang Liwei, a Chinese taikonaut, into space, marking him as the premier Chinese individual to venture into the cosmos. In Mandarin Chinese, “taikong” denotes space, and “naut,” borrowing from Greek, signifies sailor. While this term is commonly used in the West to designate a Chinese spacefarer, the official Chinese appellation for space voyagers is “yuhangyuan,” signifying “travelers of the Universe.”
In harmony with this established tradition, individuals emerging from India’s autonomous human space initiative will carry the title of “vyomanauts.” In Sanskrit, “vyoma” translates to space, and “naut,” akin to the Greek term, denotes sailor. This nomenclature has purportedly been coined by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Three vyomanauts are slated to helm Gaganyaan, India’s maiden crewed orbital spacecraft. While Prashanth Nair and Angad Prathap have secured their positions as the first two vyomanauts, Ajith Krishnan and Subhanshu Shukla contend for the coveted third spot.