3 ms·
You know this already, but it's ridiculously hard to get in. I know two people who have applied. One's a PhD cosmologist who does aerobatics on the side. One
by mturmon 15y ago
You know this already, but it's ridiculously hard to get in. I know two people who have applied. One's a PhD cosmologist who does aerobatics on the side. One's a PhD geophysicist who's also an experienced pilot and a mission data scientist. They didn't get in.
OTOH, I know another person who's also qualified who doesn't want the job, because you have to live in Houston, do a lot of PR and outreach, and the chances of actually flying are not very good.
- bfe 15y agoYou didn't say if the cosmologist is theoretical or experimental. A scientist would need a solid experimental record to be very competitive as a mission specialist astronaut candidate. (And of course an applicant for pilot astronaut has basically zero chance without top performance as an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base on her resumé.)
- mturmon 15y agoAll I'm saying is, they're both exceptional (among the class of serious-about-flying hard-science PhDs with extensive publication records and > 10 years mission experience) and they did not get in. Just calibration.
- snowwrestler 15y agoA woman I knew in college got in and flew on the Shuttle. She was a geology major and then a high school teacher. So there must be something beyond the science and pilot aspects in the evaluation.