Kennedy Space Center (KSC) employees have been encouraged to apply for NASA\u2019s latest astronaut class, as the transition from purchased seats on Russian Soyuz vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS), to the fleet of commercial vehicle options in the middle of the decade, and eventually with Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS), picks up.<\/p>\n
Want To Become An Astronaut?:<\/p>\n
As one of the most popular career choices as a young child, wanting to be an astronaut still holds the same lofty excitement as it always has, despite the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet from NASA missions.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/A413.jpg\" "\\"A413\\"")
While there has been a level of negative impact to the public\u2019s perception that NASA has given up on the Human Space Flight game, NASA is working on the awareness of the future roadmap for domestic human launches \u2013 set to begin no earlier than 2015 \u2013 even within their own centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven as we prepare KSC to support human exploration beyond our home planet, NASA is still in the human space flight business, with a permanent crew on the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2020,\u201d noted a memo sent to the KSC workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means NASA is going to continue to require astronauts to support ISS operations and provide crew support for development of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) \u2013 otherwise known as Orion \u2013 and the Space Launch System (SLS) Programs.<\/p>\n
Orion\u2019s 2017 debut mission will be unmanned, with the first crewed mission on the new NASA vehicle not expected to take place sooner than 2018, and maybe as late as 2021 \u2013 depending on the ongoing schedule evaluations.<\/p>\n
The first domestic launch of a crew into space from US soil will likely be via one of the commercial vehicles, with SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 set to launch humans via their Dragon crew capsules by the middle of the decade via the maturing of the NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contracts, which currently has four crewed transport vehicles aiming to transport crews to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Boeing\u2019s CST-100 capsule, which \u2013 like Dream Chaster \u2013 is also set to ride atop of an Atlas V launch vehicle, is also in the mix at the CCDev-2 stage, and recently signed a deal to take over one of the Shuttle Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPF-3) to assemble and process the vehicles in a deal with Space Florida.<\/p>\n Although the bulk of astronaut training takes place at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), the encouraging of KSC employees to apply is no surprise, especially with KSC Center Director Bob Cabana being a former astronaut himself.<\/p>\n Former US Marine Corp Colonel flew four times into space, twice with shuttle Discovery during STS-41 and STS-53 as pilot, prior to flying with Columbia\u2019s STS-65 mission and finally with Endeavour during STS-88 \u2013 the latter two as mission commander.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you may have heard, NASA will begin accepting applications in early November for another astronaut class to provide that support,\u201d added the address. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a number of folks from KSC selected in the past, and I would encourage you to apply if you\u2019re at all interested.\u201d<\/p>\n Requirements To Become An Astronaut:\n<\/p>\n A list of requirements were also listed in the memo, showing what remains strict rules on being able to apply to the astronaut class \u2013 barriers which will soon be broken down via the onset of commercial space flight, especially in the area of suborbital space tourism.<\/p>\n However, if you want the honor of flying as a NASA astronaut, which will also come with the history and esteem that was enjoyed by US citizens over the past 50 years, education, experience and good health are the three key drivers.<\/p>\n \u201cHere are some of the basic qualifications: U.S. citizenship. Education: Undergraduate degree in engineering, physical or biological science, or math (may be computer science),\u201d added the memo.<\/p>\n \u201cExperience: Non-Pilot \u2013 3 years of professional experience (this means after your qualifying degree, and it must be technical \u2013 graduate degrees may be substituted for experience). Pilot \u2013 1,000 hours of flying time in jet aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n The requirements become even stricter if a candidate wishes to fly on the Russian Soyuz \u2013 noted as anthropometric requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cAbility to pass NASA flight physical; some specifics: Distant and near visual acuity must be correctable to 20\/20. Blood pressure not to exceed 140\/90 in a sitting position,\u201d the requirements continued. \u201cStanding height between 62 and 75 inches (have to meet anthropometric requirements of a Soyuz capsule).\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCompetition is within the following discipline groups: Non-Pilot. Physical Sciences. Biological Sciences. Engineering\/Operations. Flight Test Engineering. Education. Pilot. No further breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n Applications for the latest class will be accepted from this month for an unspecified period of time.<\/p>\n (Images: L2 Content, NASA, ULA\/SNC)<\/p>\n (NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS\/CRS\/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. <\/p>\n (Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can support NASASpaceflight.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kennedy Space Center (KSC) employees have been encouraged to apply for NASA\u2019s latest astronaut class, as the transition from purchased seats on Russian Soyuz vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS), to the fleet of commercial vehicle options in the middle of the decade, and eventually with Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS), picks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2951,7796,640],"class_list":["post-40285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronaut","tag-commercial","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/A3151.jpg\" "\\"A3151\\"")
Fighting it out with Dragon is Blue Origin\u2019s biconic-shape capsule, which will initially launch with the Atlas V launch vehicle, prior to hitching a lift uphill via its own Reusable Booster System (RBS). While one of the more popular proposals comes from the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), with their Dream Chaser (DC) Space System (DCSS), given its appearance of a small orbiter.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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