4 ms·

NASA Selects 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class

35 points by jnand 13y ago

rpmcb 13y ago
8 individuals - 4 men, 4 women - from an applicant pool of 6,100. All in their 30s. What an accomplishment for them all.
angersock 13y ago
Man, I'm looking forward to the private spaceflight folks to get to the point where even near-sighted heavy mid-20s engineers like myself can go up and try to do things. I don't even care if my capsule asplodes--if we're going to pull of colonization, we need more zerging. EDIT: Further thought...how depressing is it to work at NASA, I wonder? You get to work with the highest-tech and most insane things the human race has ever produced, and yet you know that the vast majority of the public doesn't give a hit and that every politician views you as nothing but an excuse to enrich the contractors in their districts. I can't imagine that's a good plus to be.
- mturmon 13y ago
  But on the other hand, "you get to work with the highest-tech and most insane things the human race has ever produced".
  - spiritplumber 13y ago
    My brief-ish stint at NASA was a lot of work, dotted with the realization that the guy who prepared the .ppt slides for your project is going to get more recognition than you. I wouldn't do it again but it was totally worth it, we got to shoot some stuff into space :D
packetslave 13y ago
75% are active-duty or former military (all O-4 or higher), and most are graduates of one of the service academies. Without taking anything away from their accomplishment, it's safe to say these individuals were already high-achievers to begin with.
- beambot 13y ago
  I fail to grok the vastly disproportionate number of candidates from a military background. At the very least, it gives me a (mostly-unfounded) perception that the astronaut program must operate on a military-like hierarchy. On the flip side, this gives me great hope for non-government space operations a la Space-X.
  - kibibyte 13y ago
    I'm going to hazard a guess and say that military people tend to be much better physically prepared than anyone else for the forces they will experience during space missions.
  - Subuatai 13y ago
    I'm not an expert but here's my humble opinion. Being an astronaught has very stringent physical and mental requirements. It's probably easier(or cheaper) to pick the smartest candidates from a group of very fit ones. To make a very crude analogy, it's easier to turn the star QB into a valedictorian than to turn the valedictorian into a QB. Ps. I love the verb grok. Such a great book.
  - AaronIG 13y ago
    It's not just any military background, though. Most of them are former pilots. Astronaut Candidates must have 1,000 hours of "pilot-in-command" time in a jet aircraft, or 3 years of professional related experience. The former is usually obtained through the military. A civilian would have to complete training equivalent to that of a military pilot before actually being cleared for a mission. One-third of military pilots don't, though it's entirely possible the civilian could. However, it probably makes more sense to train those individuals who have already shown they can perform under similar conditions.
    - nknighthb 13y ago
      Also, the only military one that isn't a pilot is... a flight surgeon. This seems unlikely to be a coincidence.
omegant 13y ago
It surprises me how different is the astronaut profile between the NASA and the ESA. Herein Europe they don't look for pilots at all, they mostly look for scientist that have published a lot and that have good public relationship skills (90% of european astronaut's work seems to be PR, they don't get much spacetime) It was a disapointment when I learned that, I never had a chance anyway as my courriculum is really really far from being as good as these!. But being a pilot I hoped I had a chance some how. Personally, I think that it makes more sense to have scientists on board, the times when there was a pilot skill needed are long gone.
- biofox 13y ago
  Timothy Peake was a test pilot before joining ESA, so there is hope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Peake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Peake
- simoncoggins 13y ago
  That wasn't my experience. I got through the first 3 rounds in ESA's most recent astronaut selection, and near the end about half of the candidates were from a military or commercial flight background. The rest typically had significant research experience but almost all them had some kind of flight experience too (private license, parachuting, stunt flying, gliding, etc).
  - omegant 13y ago
    That´s cool!!, I knew I didn´t have a chance but I wanted to see how far I could go in the selection process (not very far, I was discarded before the first stage). The requirments in the application form gave the sensation that they were looking for a scientist role over pilot. I suppose you still need somebody that has some piloting skills (spacial orientation, fast assesment and resolution of problems and all that), but is not the main astronaut function anymore. I was a bit dissapointed about how much of an astronaut work life ( I mean the whole time she is working for the ESA not just the mission specific training and deployment) is around public relationship almost as somekind of scientific embassador for his country. I am courious about your experiences during the exams. How did it go?, what kind of people did you meet?.I don´t recall the test order very well, the first one was theorical?, then medical then interview?. I´ll wait till Elon has need of some bigger numbers (and the requirements are lowered or better still plumbeted). A Mars retirement could be cool!

35 points by jnand 13y ago

rpmcb 13y ago

8 individuals - 4 men, 4 women - from an applicant pool of 6,100. All in their 30s. What an accomplishment for them all.

angersock 13y ago

Man, I'm looking forward to the private spaceflight folks to get to the point where even near-sighted heavy mid-20s engineers like myself can go up and try to do things. I don't even care if my capsule asplodes--if we're going to pull of colonization, we need more zerging. EDIT: Further thought...how depressing is it to work at NASA, I wonder? You get to work with the highest-tech and most insane things the human race has ever produced, and yet you know that the vast majority of the public doesn't give a hit and that every politician views you as nothing but an excuse to enrich the contractors in their districts. I can't imagine that's a good plus to be.

mturmon 13y ago
But on the other hand, "you get to work with the highest-tech and most insane things the human race has ever produced".
- spiritplumber 13y ago
  My brief-ish stint at NASA was a lot of work, dotted with the realization that the guy who prepared the .ppt slides for your project is going to get more recognition than you. I wouldn't do it again but it was totally worth it, we got to shoot some stuff into space :D

packetslave 13y ago

75% are active-duty or former military (all O-4 or higher), and most are graduates of one of the service academies. Without taking anything away from their accomplishment, it's safe to say these individuals were already high-achievers to begin with.

beambot 13y ago
I fail to grok the vastly disproportionate number of candidates from a military background. At the very least, it gives me a (mostly-unfounded) perception that the astronaut program must operate on a military-like hierarchy. On the flip side, this gives me great hope for non-government space operations a la Space-X.
- kibibyte 13y ago
  I'm going to hazard a guess and say that military people tend to be much better physically prepared than anyone else for the forces they will experience during space missions.
- Subuatai 13y ago
  I'm not an expert but here's my humble opinion. Being an astronaught has very stringent physical and mental requirements. It's probably easier(or cheaper) to pick the smartest candidates from a group of very fit ones. To make a very crude analogy, it's easier to turn the star QB into a valedictorian than to turn the valedictorian into a QB. Ps. I love the verb grok. Such a great book.
- AaronIG 13y ago
  It's not just any military background, though. Most of them are former pilots. Astronaut Candidates must have 1,000 hours of "pilot-in-command" time in a jet aircraft, or 3 years of professional related experience. The former is usually obtained through the military. A civilian would have to complete training equivalent to that of a military pilot before actually being cleared for a mission. One-third of military pilots don't, though it's entirely possible the civilian could. However, it probably makes more sense to train those individuals who have already shown they can perform under similar conditions.
  - nknighthb 13y ago
    Also, the only military one that isn't a pilot is... a flight surgeon. This seems unlikely to be a coincidence.

omegant 13y ago

It surprises me how different is the astronaut profile between the NASA and the ESA. Herein Europe they don't look for pilots at all, they mostly look for scientist that have published a lot and that have good public relationship skills (90% of european astronaut's work seems to be PR, they don't get much spacetime) It was a disapointment when I learned that, I never had a chance anyway as my courriculum is really really far from being as good as these!. But being a pilot I hoped I had a chance some how. Personally, I think that it makes more sense to have scientists on board, the times when there was a pilot skill needed are long gone.

biofox 13y ago
Timothy Peake was a test pilot before joining ESA, so there is hope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Peake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Peake
simoncoggins 13y ago
That wasn't my experience. I got through the first 3 rounds in ESA's most recent astronaut selection, and near the end about half of the candidates were from a military or commercial flight background. The rest typically had significant research experience but almost all them had some kind of flight experience too (private license, parachuting, stunt flying, gliding, etc).
- omegant 13y ago
  That´s cool!!, I knew I didn´t have a chance but I wanted to see how far I could go in the selection process (not very far, I was discarded before the first stage). The requirments in the application form gave the sensation that they were looking for a scientist role over pilot. I suppose you still need somebody that has some piloting skills (spacial orientation, fast assesment and resolution of problems and all that), but is not the main astronaut function anymore. I was a bit dissapointed about how much of an astronaut work life ( I mean the whole time she is working for the ESA not just the mission specific training and deployment) is around public relationship almost as somekind of scientific embassador for his country. I am courious about your experiences during the exams. How did it go?, what kind of people did you meet?.I don´t recall the test order very well, the first one was theorical?, then medical then interview?. I´ll wait till Elon has need of some bigger numbers (and the requirements are lowered or better still plumbeted). A Mars retirement could be cool!