I was watching I Dream Of Jeannie for the last 40 years but unfortunately I never could find the exact path to accomplishing this 
So I guess to be an astronaut, one has to be in the US Air Force? Or does one? I mean a REAL astronaut, like the kind that went to the moon, not someone who is just a scientist and goes for the ride. (I don’t know if that happens but you get my point :))
So what are the steps from say air force to guy who goes to the moon?
All I know about the subject I learned from The Right Stuff but all of those early astronauts were test pilots. Today they’re all scientists and engineers with PhD’s.
You apply to NASA. Back when I was in grad school circa 1980, they actually advertised for candidates. Even before that, you could apply. I’m pretty sure that’s how Ron McNair, Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and Shoto-kan Black Belt*, got into the program.
*and co-author, with me, of two papers.
Most astronauts are Air Force or Navy pilots. Some have been civilians. In all cases, you have to fill out a bigass application. Most people get rejected.
Astronaut Candidate Application brochure, straight from NASA’s web page (PDF):
http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/astronauts/content/AstroCandbro_sm_new.pdf
Minimum qualifications are a bachelor’s degree (engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics), plus a graduate degree and / or professional experience. You also need to pass a physical, and be between 62" tall and 75" tall.
To be a “piloting background” astronaut (i.e., you actually fly something), add 1000 hours of jet piloting experience (and, preferentially, test pilot experience).
Here’s another PDF from the NASA site, on the selection and training process:
http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/astronauts/content/Astronaut_Selection_and_Training_2007.pdf
One of the professors here was an astronaut. He was working for Lockheed at the time, and they were building an instrument that would fly on the Shuttle, which would need a payload specialist on board to operate it. Oddly, the manager considered this a problem, that they’d have a hard time finding a volunteer for it, and he was the only one who jumped at it.
Have a look at Brian O’Leary’s book The Making of an Ex-Astronaut for a look at the process circa Apollo:
O’Leary himself never went up, but he did do work in planetary science. Judging from his bio, he got a bit weird later on:
I always thought it was interesting that Neil Armstrong was a civilian in 69. Most astronauts back then were still in the military. He was a former Navy pilot.
Tony Nelson and Roger Healey from “I Dream of Jeannie” would have been Apollo-era astronauts; back then, as noted, all astronauts had backgrounds as military pilots (Nelson and Healey were Air Force).
The original “Mercury 7” were 3 Navy pilots, 3 Air Force pilots, and 1 Marine pilot.
The next group (Astronaut Group 2, which served in Gemini and Apollo) were 5 Navy pilots and 4 Air Force pilots.
All members of those first two groups had backgrounds as test pilots.
Astronaut Group 3 (also served on Gemini and Apollo) were 4 Navy pilots, 8 Air Force pilots, and 2 Marine pilots. It was the first group which was not entirely test pilots.
It wasn’t until Astronaut Group 4 (selected in June 1965, though none flew in space before 1972) that NASA selected astronauts for a background other than pilot / test pilot. Group 4 consisted of 3 physicists, 2 physicians, and a geologist (though four of the six also served in the Navy or Air Force, and one had completed pilot training with the Air Force).
Someone I dated for a short while later became a Shuttle astronaut. She was in med school when I knew her. She later became a medical officer at the Space Center, and eventually an astronaut. She went on 3 Shuttle missions in the late 80s-early 90s.
All you have to do is travel into space to become an astronaut. Russia was sending people up for cash, don’t know if they still have that program. It was expensive. With shuttle flights coming to an end, there may be a lot less opportunities to become an astronaut in the near future. At the same time though, there are several private space vehicles being developed for space tourism, so it may not be too long before there are many new opportunities, but they will probably be expensive.
Also, there is no guarantee that on landing you will find a bottle with a gorgeous female genie in it.
I don’t know exactly how, but they are all over-achievers.
Basically, from here you need at least a bachelor’s degree in natural science, engineering or mathematics, and three years of increasingly responsible professional experience, for which graduate degrees can be substituted (presumably including MDs and the like). Since so many astronauts have Ph.D.s these days, that seems to be the normal route towards achieving that requirement.
For those with the basic academic qualifications, they also consider experience as a teacher, including K-12, to be qualifying. I was surprised by this until it occurred me that such candidates, if chosen, probably make great ambassadors of the space program to the public.
When Christa McAuliffe died on Challenger there was another teacher as her backup. That teacher later became a regular astronaut . (not just the “teacher in space”)
She flew 1 mission in 2007
Nitpick: Healy was in the army.
You’re right; I’d forgotten that he wore a different color uniform.
That said, Healey represented something that didn’t exist in reality at that time: an astronaut from the Army.
My sister applied to be an astronaut; she was turned down.
Buy a lot of bananas and a diaper?
The first astronauts were chimps.
Yeah, that made the show totally unrealistic.
It happens, I briefly worked for a guy who went along for the ride twice in order to conduct his scientific experiment.