ABSTRACT
In relation to astronauts its specific treaty-based duties provide for how states are to consider and treat astronauts. Notably there are duties as to their ‘rescue and return’. However, the emergence of the ‘space tourist’ casts doubt on the ambit or content of the concept of ‘astronaut’. The original thoughts as to the category ‘astronaut’ were developed when private space flight by non-professionals was to be found only in science fiction. Any definition of an ‘astronaut’ for legal purposes would appear to require two elements, an element of training and an element of altitude. Correlatively there must also be an element of selection. Whether sub-orbital flight confers the status of ‘astronaut’ in international law should at present still be considered as uncertain. The development of commercial space tourism makes it likely that there will be media pressure to describe passengers on a spacecraft as ‘astronauts’, at least in the case of orbital flights of extended duration.
