Astronaut pilots should be on their way out. The STS required them because it was a semi-airplane. All modern and future craft will be mostly- or fully-autonomo

Astronaut pilots should be on their way out. The STS required them because it was a semi-airplane. All modern and future craft will be mostly- or fully-autonomous. Soyuz still requires some technical skill, though not actual flying, but unless you're Russian you aren't going to be a Soyuz commander anyway. But it seems the best bet to become a government astronaut is still to be a test pilot. The Navy actually seems to be a more popular source than the Air Force. Army or Marine aviation may also be good, as there are fewer of them and NASA seems to like to distribute picks among the services. You can also go get a PhD (or, even better, two) in something hard-research-y. Something with bio- in the title is probably good. They do still pick a few civilians. Even better is to have two PhDs and be a test pilot. That'll get their attention. If you have to pick one, military might still be best: NASA should probably be picking the best possible lab assistants, but old habits die hard and the astronaut office is rather invested in the test pilot idea. But they might shift a bit once they're all flying passenger on commercial transport. On the other hand, if they ever get Orion flying, they'll probably want to staff it with test pilots. I don't think anyone else would be crazy enough to get on the thing within the next two decades considering their "test program".