[wodenokoto]

The Russian calls lots of things differently than the Americans do.

Also, nobody in Denmark says spationaut. We say Astronaut, so not all of Europe and not only English speakers.

[dbosch]

I do hear you, buddy. I'm french, and I do say "Astronaut" when I speaking about space. I'm just stating that in newspaper (not always), they say "spationaut". It's just how it's supposed to be said. But not everyone is following this. And it's ok. I was just highlighting the fact that there is a different name for people going to space regarding the country they are from. That's all.

But yeah, the american word it has probably won in the popular culture and in the day-to-day language.

Sorry. I didn't want to sound like Mr. know it all.