Taikonaut是神舟五号时期所成名的英文新字，意思是“中国太空人”。

Taikonaut is the Chinese counterpart for astronaut and cosmonaut.

The term was coined on 19 May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (赵里昱) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media based on the Mandarin Chinese term tàikōng (太空), space. This follows the pattern established by the terms astronaut and cosmonaut for having different terms for space workers denoting country of origin.

“Taikonaut”最先是由马来西亚华人科学家赵里昱1998年在网络科技论坛里使用的。这一年，中国组建了中国航天员大队。2003年，神舟五号把第一名中国航天员送入地球轨道时，英文“太空人”也和杨利伟的名字一样，一举成名。