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"Salaries for civilian Astronaut Candidates are based on the Federal Government’s General Schedule pay scales for grades GS-11 through GS-14" From http://www.f

"Salaries for civilian Astronaut Candidates are based on the Federal Government’s General Schedule pay scales for grades GS-11 through GS-14" From http://www.federaljobs.net/salarybase.htm#SALARY_TABLE_2015-GS http://www.federaljobs.net/salarybase.htm#SALARY_TABLE_2015-... it sounds like civilian astronaut salaries then range from $51k to $112k per year. That feels pretty low, but presumably astonauts assigned to a mission can make money through public speaking, etc.

frisco 11y ago
Salary is about priority #97 when legitimately considering becoming an astronaut.
sithadmin 11y ago
>astronauts assigned to a mission can make money through public speaking As somebody who knows many current and former astronauts (lived a stone's throw from JSC for 20+ years)... I can assure you that astronauts picking up money for appearances is fairly uncommon. A majority are incredibly low-profile, publicity-wise. If they show up to an event to speak, it's almost always because they personally feel compelled to advocate for research, education, the space program in general, etc.
adrianN 11y ago
There are lots of people who would do it for free. I'm sure even the pool of qualified applicants is much larger than the available positions.
- jonknee 11y ago
  There are lots of people who would pay to do it!
baby 11y ago
How is that low? With such a salary you can live a pretty good life.
- uptown 11y ago
  That really depends where you live, and whether you're supporting a family.
  - splatcollision 11y ago
    You'll be living in Houston, TX.
    - knowaveragejoe 11y ago
      So yes.
  - baby 11y ago
    I think you can live in 99% of the world pretty comfortably with such a salary.
pc86 11y ago
Plus a minimum 14% cost-of-living adjustment, plus benefits associated with a job with the Federal government. Assuming you've got a PhD that immediately puts you in the GS 13/14 range, which is about $80-112k plus the above. Nobody applies to be an astronaut to get rich, but for a well-educated person $150k in pay and benefits is absolutely possible, which is a great paycheck, especially in Houston.
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  Having a PhD offers no such guarantee in the federal government. I have a GS-11 friend who has an aerospace engineering PhD, granted only 4 years into her employment, but still no guarantee. The GS grades are not about education, but job responsibility. The grade for a given position also depends on the agency you're working for and where. An engineer with the AF working for ACC might be a GS-11, but a GS-12 if they switched to AFMC, or GS-13 if they did the same job with AFMC at another base.
  - pc86 11y ago
    > Having a PhD offers no such guarantee in the federal government. I misread the GS site, you are correct. Still quite a bit above the median in terms of salary, which was my only real point (and that if you are primarily motivated by money, advanced degrees and Federal government employment is probably not in your future, anyway).
landonshoop 11y ago
Working for the federal government has some solid perks including great pension plans. Having grown up in DC, my parents really hoped I would go work for the government. Instead they got an entrepreneur! As for post-astro careers: my understanding is that a number of astronauts have gone on to academia.
mrep 11y ago
That's not surprising at all. From an economic perspective, people choose jobs to maximize utility, salary being just one component of that. They don't have to pay them that much because being an astronaut is literally one of the coolest jobs ever. In addition, the demand for astronauts is astronomically low :), so the supply of people wanting to do it is very high compared to demand. Think about scuba diving instructors. They don't make that much money because it's such an awesome job. If I could make 150k a year doing that, I would quit my job in a heartbeat, move to Hawaii and never look back. However, they don't because if they started paying that much, a million other people would do the same, flooding the market with scuba instructors which would shift the salary back to what it is now.

frisco 11y ago

Salary is about priority #97 when legitimately considering becoming an astronaut.

sithadmin 11y ago

>astronauts assigned to a mission can make money through public speaking As somebody who knows many current and former astronauts (lived a stone's throw from JSC for 20+ years)... I can assure you that astronauts picking up money for appearances is fairly uncommon. A majority are incredibly low-profile, publicity-wise. If they show up to an event to speak, it's almost always because they personally feel compelled to advocate for research, education, the space program in general, etc.

adrianN 11y ago

There are lots of people who would do it for free. I'm sure even the pool of qualified applicants is much larger than the available positions.

jonknee 11y ago
There are lots of people who would pay to do it!

baby 11y ago

How is that low? With such a salary you can live a pretty good life.

uptown 11y ago
That really depends where you live, and whether you're supporting a family.
- splatcollision 11y ago
  You'll be living in Houston, TX.
  - knowaveragejoe 11y ago
    So yes.
- baby 11y ago
  I think you can live in 99% of the world pretty comfortably with such a salary.

pc86 11y ago

Plus a minimum 14% cost-of-living adjustment, plus benefits associated with a job with the Federal government. Assuming you've got a PhD that immediately puts you in the GS 13/14 range, which is about $80-112k plus the above. Nobody applies to be an astronaut to get rich, but for a well-educated person $150k in pay and benefits is absolutely possible, which is a great paycheck, especially in Houston.

Jtsummers 11y ago
Having a PhD offers no such guarantee in the federal government. I have a GS-11 friend who has an aerospace engineering PhD, granted only 4 years into her employment, but still no guarantee. The GS grades are not about education, but job responsibility. The grade for a given position also depends on the agency you're working for and where. An engineer with the AF working for ACC might be a GS-11, but a GS-12 if they switched to AFMC, or GS-13 if they did the same job with AFMC at another base.
- pc86 11y ago
  > Having a PhD offers no such guarantee in the federal government. I misread the GS site, you are correct. Still quite a bit above the median in terms of salary, which was my only real point (and that if you are primarily motivated by money, advanced degrees and Federal government employment is probably not in your future, anyway).

landonshoop 11y ago

Working for the federal government has some solid perks including great pension plans. Having grown up in DC, my parents really hoped I would go work for the government. Instead they got an entrepreneur! As for post-astro careers: my understanding is that a number of astronauts have gone on to academia.

mrep 11y ago

That's not surprising at all. From an economic perspective, people choose jobs to maximize utility, salary being just one component of that. They don't have to pay them that much because being an astronaut is literally one of the coolest jobs ever. In addition, the demand for astronauts is astronomically low :), so the supply of people wanting to do it is very high compared to demand. Think about scuba diving instructors. They don't make that much money because it's such an awesome job. If I could make 150k a year doing that, I would quit my job in a heartbeat, move to Hawaii and never look back. However, they don't because if they started paying that much, a million other people would do the same, flooding the market with scuba instructors which would shift the salary back to what it is now.