How to Become an Astronaut 101 | Hacker News Reader

How to Become an Astronaut 101

spaceflight.nasa.gov

48 pointsmotxilo21 comments

When I started my doolie (freshman) year at the USAF Academy, one of my classmates stated that his mission in life was to become an astronaut. He had been planning it out since he was like 10 years old.

He told us that this was his plan: First he had to get into the Academy, then major in engineering - ideally aeronautical engineering, then become a fighter pilot then become a test pilot and finally apply and become a NASA astronaut. I challenged him to be the first one in space, except I said that I would pay for a ride there as a tourist.

He ended up being the #1 grad from our class with his degree in aero engineering, went on to get his doctorate from Oxford and is now flying the B-1B. Still a few steps to go.

HOWEVER - there is almost no chance of him ever piloting a US spacecraft based largely on where the manned space program is. So while I am a little sad for him, given how hard he has been trying - it also makes our wager look more promising in my favor!

Once travel into space is viable for average tourists (not only tourists willing to pay 100 million dollars) it'll probably also require more pilots than today, so I'll say that he still has a better chance being there before you.

When I made the bet with my friends, predators/reapers were just starting to come online and it was clear to me that they would be the wave of the future and eventually pilots would be out of the loop.

We certainly aren't there yet but my long term bet is that humans will be pushed further out of the loop for all things transportation - space travel being one of the main ones I would expect to transition first as it's basically there today anyway.

At some point in the future: Yes. But there's no way that this will start without at least human backup pilots on board.

And then there's the testing phase where many pilots will be needed to validate the safety of such flights.

Even when you look at various private space travel companies you'll find that they plan to use human pilots. (Virgin Galactic and others)

Yeah...I've got a friend (ex F/A-18 driver) who had a slot the would have seen him fly on the Shuttle had it gone another 3 or 4 launches. He's pretty reconciled to never getting a shot at space unless it's as a civilian.

I assume SpaceX will be looking for pilots at some point, and they're always looking for people to send up to the IIS.

> HOWEVER - there is almost no chance of him ever piloting a US spacecraft based largely on where the manned space program is.

I personally do not think this is true. There are at least 5 spacecraft under development right now that would need pilots: NASA Orion, Boeing CST, SpaceX Dragon, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. Even if some of these fold, it still seems likely that at least 2-3 spacecraft would need crews at the same time. This is on top of ISS crew commitments.

I think we're in a lull right this minute, as we were after Apollo, but I think it's easy to mistake that for the future. If your friend will be still be in flying shape in 5-10-15 years, I predict there will be a number of opportunities to fly into space.

I do wonder about the future of non-pilot, non-engineer astronauts. Aside from the ISS, all the craft flying or under development would seem to demand a small crew of engineers. As opposed to the Space Shuttle program, which had enough seats for teachers, chemists, etc. to qualify and fly. For example a woman I knew in college flew on the Space Shuttle with a bachelor of geology and a few years teaching high school.

This is decades old. Look at the date. It's about someone who was selected in 1992. "With the space station currently under construction...". This dates from the early Shuttle era.

NASA has far too many astronauts now; they've been laying them off. They're now down to 42 active astronauts[1], from a peak of around 130. One ex-astronaut was grumbling publicly that his pass to NASA Houston had been pulled. Ex-astronauts used to be allowed in for life. Not any more.

After all, NASA has nothing for them to pilot.

Space-X, though...

[1] http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio.html

TL;DR: School > Air Force > 'selected' by NASA.

I thought this was going to be an inspiring 'to do' list of candidates & application processes. Just being selected with no mention of reasoning or criteria was kind of a let down.

Moreover. Astronaut != go into space necessarily. That is, being selected and trained doesn't mean you get to fly.

An acquintance of an acquintance was an astronaut for a decade (I heard of him in early 2000s) and never got to fly anywhere until then.

Have you read "An Astronaut's guide to life on earth"[1] by Chris Hadfield?

Its written in a little more informal context than a to-do list, but it does describe what he (and his family!!!) had to go through.

Brilliant read!

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth-Determinat...

I applied to ESA Astronaut selection 6 or 7 years ago. I´m airline pilot but with no military or engineering experience, only reading quite a lot about the space race all my live (great resume huh?). I knew I didn't have a chance, because they mostly were asking for a scientific curriculum, Ph.D.'s that had a good number of publications under their belts, that and a good public speaking capacity were the more important characteristics. Piloting skills were in the nice to have but not important by any means zone.

I guess that astronauts this days are mostly researchers in a very high and fast laboratory, but above all they are PR's for the 95% of their career, at least in Europe.

Obviously with my laughable resume I was weeded out in the first screening.

Seems to me one's most probable mean to get into space is to get rich and buy yourself a seat. Getting rich is something much more into your control than getting selected and having the will of a government decide of your faith.

Don't both situations boil down to win the genetic lottery, be born to the correct parents, be born in a good school district, get accepted into an ivy (not necessarily graduate, but at least get in), by survivorship bias be the lucky one who rises up the management ranks/levels the fastest, operate in the system in a government controlled org, either economic like our highly regulated centrally controlled economy or join the .mil... Its pretty much the same path with some minor scenery differences.

Not really a genetic lottery, though some places in the world make it a lot easier to succeed and become rich. Being born or move to any of the western nations will greatly increase your chances. But the person also has to have a will to do so too.

But the person also has to have a will to do so too.

Unless they inherit wealth or connections. My understanding is it’s about a 50:50 split between make or inherit worldwide depending on what you call weath.

Still pretty sure that the probability that you get rich enough to get into space is higher, than the probability that you be luckily selected by NASA.

Assume that 1M$ is what you will need to get into space. It takes some flair and some favorable conditions, but I think that ~0.1 to 1% of the population can get 1M$. Much less than 0.1% of the population is selected by NASA to go to space.

Its fun to see Cady on here. She lives in my little village of Shelburne Falls, MA and sometimes plays in a free Sunday morning celtic jam session in a town.

Here is Cady doing a duet in space with a member of Jethro Tull:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeC4nqBB5BM

I find it easier to just play Kerbal Space Program.

Also, don't be a midget (<5'2") or a giant (>6'3"). [1]

[1]http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/featu...

Step 1: get into MIT...

Looks like that train has sailed. :-)

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