Do you want to be an Astronaut?

02/20/2016

Do you want to be an Astronaut?

(Above) NASA Astronaut Class of 2013, the first Astronauts selected for Orions Deep Space Missions.

On February 18th 2016 marked the ending of the application process for possible candidates for NASA's Astronaut Class of 2017. This is the largest known application session in NASA history with 18,300 applicants from all walks of life and all ethnic and religious back grounds. Almost three times the number of applications received in 2012 for the most recent astronaut class, and far surpassing the previous record of 8,000 in 1978.

(above) NASA Astronaut Class 1978 known as the TFNG (Thirty Five New Guys).

NASA Administrator and former Shuttle Commander Charles Bolden stated “It’s not at all surprising to me that so many Americans from diverse backgrounds want to personally contribute to blazing the trail on our "Journey to Mars.", “A few exceptionally talented men and women will become the astronauts chosen in this group who will once again launch to space from U.S. soil on American-made spacecraft.”

For the next 18 months NASA’s Astronaut Selection Review Board will look over the applications, assessing each candidate’s qualifications. The board then will invite the most highly qualified candidates which out of the 18,300 only 8 -14 of them will be chosen and sent to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for interviews before the final selection is made and the new astronaut candidates report to Johnson for training.

Johnson Space Center Director of flight operations Brian Kelly stated “We have our work cut out for us with this many applications,” “But it’s heartening to know so many people recognize what a great opportunity this is to be part of NASA’s exciting mission. I look forward to meeting the men and women talented enough to rise to the top of what is always a pool of incredible applicants.” 

And it truly is heartwarming in this day and with things like celebrity social media, urban thug life, and the real life problems with the American education system that is currently in crisis! Growing instability in the Geopolitical and Global Climate Shift elements saturating our television in a radio and social media outlets. To see people from all races creed gender and sexual preference, that are that interested and that dedicated enough to want to become Astronauts. To further improve mankind's existence and push our existence into the future for our children and all of the creatures on planet Earth.

After reporting at Johnson, the astronaut candidates will go through about two years of training on spacecraft systems, flight training, spacewalking skills and teamwork building exercises, and lastly Russian language training to help in working with the Russian  modules of the International Space Station and other requisite skills.

Those who complete the training will be given technical duties within the Astronaut Office at Johnson before being assigned on any of four different spacecraft: the International Space astation, and NASA’s Orion MPCV spacecraft for deep space exploration, or one of two American-made commercial crew spacecraft cthat are currently in development – Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner or the SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2017. NASA expects to announce their candidate selection picks in mid 2017.

(above) 1959 Astronaut candidates Project Mercury. James Lovell and Pete Conrad are shown but were not chosen till the Gemini program.