“NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charlie Bolden says, “It’s not at all surprising to me that so many Americans from diverse backgrounds want to personally contribute to blazing the trail on our journey to Mars”, said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, himself a former astronaut”.
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Bolden is glossing over the real reasons why astronaut applications are up: NASA spent much of 2015 talking to the public about its aggressive plans to send astronauts to Mars by 2040.
NASA hopes to announce its selections in mid-2017.
In the meantime, astronauts will have to settle for flying to the International Space Station, which NASA has committed to manning through 2024 and possibly 2028.
Over the next 18 months, NASA’s astronaut-selection board will narrow the applicants down, and the top applicants will interview at Johnson Space Center in Houston – ultimately, NASA will select a final set of eight to 14 astronaut candidates to begin training.
Astronaut Mike Hopkins, Expedition 38 Flight Engineer, is shown in this handout photo provided by NASA as he participates in the second of two spacewalks which took place on December 24, 2013. A record-breaking 18,300 people have applied to be in NASA’s 2017 astronaut class. Candidates must have three years of related professional experience or 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in a jet aircraft.
WASHINGTON, United States-NASA has received a record 18,300 resumes from people keen on becoming astronauts, the USA space agency said Friday.
After reporting at Johnson, the astronaut candidates will go through about two years of initial training on spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills and teamwork, Russian language and other requisite skills. They must also be able to pass a rigorous NASA physical certifying great eyesight, good blood pressure and correct height measurements: astronaut candidates must be between 62 and 75 inches to be shot into space.
The lucky astronauts who will complete the training will then be assigned to a spacecraft of these four: the Orion spacecraft, International Space Station, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner or the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
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Kelly said that he is excited to meet the men and women who would rise to the top of a poll of incredible applicants.
