Yes, especially when it’s measured in astronaut-fatalities per average astronaut-miles travelled.
But there’s plenty of precedent to say that 1950’s test pilot was a dangerous occupation, and the Mercury astronauts were test pilots.
In the 1950s test pilots were being killed at a rate of about one a week
Heck, some insurance companies don’t even want to insure plain, ordinary, everyday pilots.
What is an Aviation Exclusion? - Definition from Insuranceopedia.
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With a meagre military salary, a sky-high chance of dying and no life insurance, I can understand astronauts looking for extra ways to provide for their families. But, really, they should not have been forced into that position. (As for the cars, does leasing a brand-new Stingray really count as taking care of the wife and kids?)
It is kind of strange how it worked out that way. They didn’t get special pay, they simply retained their pay structure in their branch of military. They weren’t forced into anything as such.
The astronaut program itself was seen as quite a bit of a gamble at the time. Some of them were at Edwards AFB, and had pretty good gigs there as the cream of experimental test pilots. Jumping ship was considered a career killer, and there were no guarantees anything was actually going to come of it.
In the early years there was a bit of jostling around and turf fighting and uncertainty - was this going to be an Army deal, an Air force deal, or something else entirely? Looking back, it does seem strange they didn’t address this. Being one of the very very few lucky one’s chosen for the program was considered enough compensation, and they did get nice homes, along with the free use of aircraft to commute back and forth from Houston to Kennedy space center.
They were also very cognizant of where they would be and what they would be doing, if they weren’t in the Apollo program.