How Does One Become An Astronaut?

[kenobi_65]

@TriPolar

Yeah, that made the show totally unrealistic.

Fair point.

[anson2995]

NASA answers the OP’s question.

It’s worth observing that NASA is still hiring new astronauts, even though there are only three more shuttle missions planned and the International Space Station program is scheduled to end in 2015.

[YogSothoth]

@CalMeacham

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.

I’m sure he was there for other reasons, such as having the ability to Dragon Punch an alien in the face if they were hostile

[Chronos]

Yeah, like a dude named YogSosoth would know anything about hostile aliens…

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

Who was the first astronaut who was NOT married & had sired children?
For quite a while, that seemed to be a qualification. (Or maybe it was just that at the age range NASA chose, most men had already done that?)

[TriPolar]

@t-bonham@scc.net

Who was the first astronaut who was NOT married & had sired children?
For quite a while, that seemed to be a qualification. (Or maybe it was just that at the age range NASA chose, most men had already done that?)

If you meant not married and had not sired children, it was Valentina Tereshkova.

[joebuck20]

@t-bonham@scc.net

Who was the first astronaut who was NOT married & had sired children?
For quite a while, that seemed to be a qualification. (Or maybe it was just that at the age range NASA chose, most men had already done that?)

The first NASA astronaut to have been a bachelor, I believe, was Jack Swigert who flew on Apollo 13.

[alphaboi867]

@TriPolar

If you meant not married and had not sired children, it was Valentina Tereshkova.

But technically she was a cosmonaut, not an astronaut. Likewise so all of the private space tourists so far have been cosmonauts; IIRC it the Russians charge about $30,000,000 for a trip to the ISS.

[Johnny_L.A]

I Am An Astronaut.

Well, OK, I’m not.

[TriPolar]

@alphaboi867

But technically she was a cosmonaut, not an astronaut. Likewise so all of the private space tourists so far have been cosmonauts; IIRC it the Russians charge about $30,000,000 for a trip to the ISS.

a person trained to travel in a spacecraft; “the Russians called their astronauts cosmonauts”

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. …

But t-bonham@scc.net might have meant the first male astronaut to have a child out of wedlock. I’m surprised by the poor use of parentheses when operator precedence was unspecified.