Astronaut
Astronaut was a term used for early Earth space travellers. While members of the British and American space programmes were referred to by this term, (TV: The Ambassadors of Death) their Russian counterparts were known as "cosmonauts". (AUDIO: 1963: The Space Race)
When Ace was eight years old, she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)
Wilfred Mott claimed to have always wanted to be an astronaut, noting he had inadvertently become one after being transported to the Vinvocci spaceship. (TV: The End of Time)
In 2015, astronauts on the International Space Station were killed when a Hyperion spaceship collided with the station. (COMIC: The Hyperion Empire)
The "Impossible Astronaut"
The Silents planted a post-hypnotic suggestion in the American government to achieve a landing on the Moon because they needed a space suit. They stole the parts from the space program, and upgraded a space suit with twenty different kinds of alien technology and put Melody Pond inside it in 1969. Footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon was later used to defeat the Silents by splicing in footage of a Silent saying "you should kill us all on sight." (TV: The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon)
As an adult, Melody Pond, now known as River Song, was abducted again by Madame Kovarian and the Silence to be their patsy for murdering the Eleventh Doctor; she was put in another upgraded space suit and submerged in Lake Silencio, Utah, to wait for the Doctor, whom she would kill at 5:02pm on 22 April 2011. However, the Doctor cheated death by having the Teselecta take his place with him safely in its left eye, along with the TARDIS. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)
