“We have our work cut out for us with this many applications”, said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Of those 18,300, only 8 to 14 will have “the right stuff” to train to be some of the first astronauts to use the Orion capsule as it explores deep space for the first time since the 1970s.
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The unmanned Cygnus cargo ship Deke Slayton II departs the International Space Station at the end of its resupply mission.
“A few exceptionally talented men and women will become the astronauts chosen in this group who will once again launch to space from US soil on American-made spacecraft”, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a four-time shuttle flier, said in apress release.
Expedition 46 astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra of NASA commanded the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Cygnus spacecraft at 7:26 a.m. EST while the space station was flying above Bolivia.
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.
NASA has handed off space station shipments to private business so it can focus on getting astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit, namely to Mars. Candidates need to be USA citizens with a bachelor’s degree in science, math or engineering.
Payload Specialists have specialized duties aboard the spacecraft and may be added to ships involved in special missions.
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Between now and then, NASA’s Astronaut Selection Board will review the applications, assessing each candidate’s qualifications.
