But even after growing up (and becoming anything but an astronaut), many people still fantasize about traveling to space and seeing the Earth from the moon’s perspective.
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NASA expects to announce its new class in mid-2017.
More than 18,300 people applied to be in NASA’s 2017 astronaut class, nearly three times as many as applied in 2012 for NASA’s most recent class. The previous record was 8,000 applicants, in 1978.
USA space agency NASA said on Friday that a record number of Americans have applied to be astronauts this year.
Including the “Original Seven” Mercury astronauts named in 1959, NASA has selected 338 astronauts to date in 21 groups.
“We have our work cut out for us with this many applications”, Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at Johnson Space Center, said in the statement.
NASA accepted applications from December 14 until February 18, and will now begin the 18-month process of sifting through the huge applicant pool to select just eight to fourteen final candidates. NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Candidates need to be USA citizens with a bachelor’s degree in science, math or engineering.
This new recruitment period followed shortly after the previous batch of astronauts had finished training, preparing them to become helpful in advancing the scientific studies taking place aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
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.
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Astronauts who complete the training will take on technical duties at NASA’s Astronaut Office before receiving assignments to specific spacecraft, including the International Space Station, the Orion deep space explorer, and commercial craft in development at Boeing and SpaceX. They can be nominated by NASA or foreign countries based on specific needs of the mission. 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.
