[comodore_]

the term "astronaut" is not tied to universal characteristics such as having been to earth's orbit. instead, the term was introduced by NASA and is explicitly reserved for crew members of NASA space programs who have been to orbit or beyond. therefore there are also no soviet astronauts

[krick]

Uh, indeed one would likely use the word "космонавт" talking about soviet astronauts, and one could claim that "astronaut" is somehow NASA-related since USA was the second country that had astronauts, but the word "astronaut" was introduced in science fiction long before NASA even existed and is not even an English word. So that claim is dubious at best.