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Sure. But when you do fly I’d say it’s pretty risky.[1] Even some of the training can kill you. Seems more risky than a typical desk job, but maybe that de

• deleted 11y ago
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• delazeur 11y ago
  For context: 4 out 301 spaceflights have resulted in fatalities, or 18 out of 546 people who have been to space. 13 people have died in training, but I have not been able to find the total number of people who have trained as astronauts or cosmonauts. I suppose we would also have to account for health risks due to spaceflight: radiation exposure, accelerated aging, respiratory issues among Apollo astronauts due to lunar dust in their capsules, etc. It's certainly riskier than a desk job, but it still doesn't seem that risky to me. [1] fatalities in space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_ac... [2] number of spaceflights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_spaceflights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_spaceflights [3] number of people who have been to space: http://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/stats.php http://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/stats.php [4] accelerated astronaut aging: http://lemire.me/blog/2015/12/01/the-mysterious-aging-of-astronauts/ http://lemire.me/blog/2015/12/01/the-mysterious-aging-of-ast... [5] Apollo respiratory issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_health_effects_from_lunar_dust_exposure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_health_effects_from_lu...
  • twoodfin 11y ago
    Thanks for compiling the numbers. 18 "work"-related fatalities out of 546 "workers" represents a massive amount of risk over any widespread form of civilian employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fishing is the riskiest job these days, with an annual fatality rate of around 12 per 10000. Even granting that safety has improved with experience and better engineering, I think it's safe to say that being an astronaut is at least 10x more dangerous than the most dangerous civilian job.
    • delazeur 11y ago
      You're right; when I say "not that risky" I'm comparing reality vs. perception of space flight more than reality of space flight vs. reality of dangerous civilian jobs. On the other hand, for an accurate comparison to BLS numbers I think we would need the total number of astronauts, not the number of spaceflight participants. As for safety improvements, 3 of the 4 fatal spaceflight accidents (and 11 of 18 deaths) occurred in relatively new vehicles. Only one of the accidents occurred in a tried-and-true vehicle, and the fatality count is inflated by the number of people NASA put on each shuttle.
• Digit-Al 11y ago
  Swings and roundabouts. An astronaut has a greater risk of dying in an accident than most people, but the greater amount of fitness required increases the chances of living a long life if they don't have any accident. Conversely, there is much less of a risk of a fatal accident in a desk job - but long, stressful, hours combined with a bad diet and lack of exercise can massively increase the chance of dying early from heart disease or stroke.