Astronaut Terry Virts conducts a spacewalk during an orbital sunrise on February 21, 2015.
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NASA says more than 18,300 Americans applied to be part of the space agency’s 2017 astronaut class during a two-month application window that closed Thursday.
NASA astronauts go for a brisk space walk.
While NASA acknowledged the selection process will be rigorous, the agency’s executives are happy to see so many interested applicants.
According to NASA, the 18,300 applicants will be whittled down to just eight to 14 individuals during the next year and a half. “A few exceptionally talented men and women will become the astronauts chosen in this group who will once again launch to space from USA soil on American-made spacecraft”, NASA admin Charles Bolden said in a press release.
Those who would be able to make through the training will either be assigned for International Space Station, NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner or the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
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). NASA said it expects to announce its selections in mid-2017.
A record number of Americans responded to NASA’s latest call for applications for its astronaut training program.
“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.
Qualified candidates need to be U.S. citizens and have at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, computer science or math, as well as three years of professional experience or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.
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NASA plans to put a man on Mars sometime in the 2030’s, but before that can happen it needs to successfully complete a number of other missions including a lunar flyby sometime around 2023. Classes are picked every so often based on mission needs. NASA doesn’t take applications on a rolling basis.
