

NASA Selects 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class - jnand
http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/2013astroclass.html

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packetslave
75% are active-duty or former military (all O-4 or higher), and most are
graduates of one of the service academies. Without taking anything away from
their accomplishment, it's safe to say these individuals were already high-
achievers to begin with.

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beambot
I fail to grok the vastly disproportionate number of candidates from a
military background. At the very least, it gives me a (mostly-unfounded)
perception that the astronaut program must operate on a military-like
hierarchy. On the flip side, this gives me great hope for non-government space
operations a la Space-X.

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AaronIG
It's not just any military background, though. Most of them are former pilots.
Astronaut Candidates must have 1,000 hours of "pilot-in-command" time in a jet
aircraft, or 3 years of professional related experience. The former is usually
obtained through the military.

A civilian would have to complete training equivalent to that of a military
pilot before actually being cleared for a mission. One-third of military
pilots don't, though it's entirely possible the civilian could. However, it
probably makes more sense to train those individuals who have already shown
they can perform under similar conditions.

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nknighthb
Also, the only military one that isn't a pilot is... a flight surgeon. This
seems unlikely to be a coincidence.

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omegant
It surprises me how different is the astronaut profile between the NASA and
the ESA. Herein Europe they don't look for pilots at all, they mostly look for
scientist that have published a lot and that have good public relationship
skills (90% of european astronaut's work seems to be PR, they don't get much
spacetime) It was a disapointment when I learned that, I never had a chance
anyway as my courriculum is really really far from being as good as these!.
But being a pilot I hoped I had a chance some how. Personally, I think that it
makes more sense to have scientists on board, the times when there was a pilot
skill needed are long gone.

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simoncoggins
That wasn't my experience. I got through the first 3 rounds in ESA's most
recent astronaut selection, and near the end about half of the candidates were
from a military or commercial flight background. The rest typically had
significant research experience but almost all them had some kind of flight
experience too (private license, parachuting, stunt flying, gliding, etc).

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omegant
That´s cool!!, I knew I didn´t have a chance but I wanted to see how far I
could go in the selection process (not very far, I was discarded before the
first stage). The requirments in the application form gave the sensation that
they were looking for a scientist role over pilot. I suppose you still need
somebody that has some piloting skills (spacial orientation, fast assesment
and resolution of problems and all that), but is not the main astronaut
function anymore. I was a bit dissapointed about how much of an astronaut work
life ( I mean the whole time she is working for the ESA not just the mission
specific training and deployment) is around public relationship almost as
somekind of scientific embassador for his country.

I am courious about your experiences during the exams. How did it go?, what
kind of people did you meet?.I don´t recall the test order very well, the
first one was theorical?, then medical then interview?. I´ll wait till Elon
has need of some bigger numbers (and the requirements are lowered or better
still plumbeted). A Mars retirement could be cool!

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simoncoggins
We signed an NDA so I can't say too much, but the first interview was
basically an IQ screening - a full day of computer based tests for maths,
physics, memory, spatial orientation etc. The second interview was much more
in depth, hands on and focused more on team work. Both were physically and
mentally exhausting.

The people I met, particularly at the second interview were pretty remarkable:
smart, driven but also friendly and down-to-earth. It was quite intimidating
to spend 5 minutes talking to someone and find out they have a PhD in bio-
informatics, a masters in computer science and oh, by the way, they fly
acrobatics in their spare time.

Still the whole thing was great fun and I came away pretty impressed with the
process (and off course the few who got selected at the end).

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omegant
Awesome thanks! It could had been great to pass a couple of levels just for
the experience, but my online registration looked very very empty compared to
the curriculums that you mention. Did you prepare for the tests?, I don't
recall if there was any kind of study list available.

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rpmcb
8 individuals - 4 men, 4 women - from an applicant pool of 6,100. All in their
30s. What an accomplishment for them all.

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angersock
Man, I'm looking forward to the private spaceflight folks to get to the point
where even near-sighted heavy mid-20s engineers like myself can go up and try
to do things.

I don't even care if my capsule asplodes--if we're going to pull of
colonization, we need more zerging.

EDIT:

Further thought...how depressing is it to work at NASA, I wonder? You get to
work with the highest-tech and most insane things the human race has ever
produced, and yet you know that the vast majority of the public doesn't give a
hit and that every politician views you as nothing but an excuse to enrich the
contractors in their districts. I can't imagine that's a good plus to be.

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mturmon
But on the other hand, "you get to work with the highest-tech and most insane
things the human race has ever produced".

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spiritplumber
My brief-ish stint at NASA was a lot of work, dotted with the realization that
the guy who prepared the .ppt slides for your project is going to get more
recognition than you. I wouldn't do it again but it was totally worth it, we
got to shoot some stuff into space :D

