NASA Selects New Astronauts

Good Luck Cadets! You will be in the group that walks on the moon next, (We hope). Train hard, and don't let all the negative buzz get you down!

Carl
"When in doubt, Push all the buttons!" Moe Howard

New astronaut selection includes a CIA technical intelligence officer? For future exploration missions? Do they think we're dupes ...

"Do they think we're dupes ..."

Only those with tinfoil hats and think that there is something going on. Following the your logic, then any USAF bomber pilot becoming an astronaut would insinuate that NASA is doing something with orbital weapons. People that think like this shouldn't be allowed near computers.
What is the matter with the CIA technical intelligence officer changing careers?

Editors note: Then, of course, there are the veterinarians that NASA has flown. I wonder what ulterior motive was behind that ;-)

Grounded, I see three test pilots on the list. The "Strategic Policy intern", "Assistant Program Manager" and "Department Head" you mention are three of the (former?) test pilots. Three out of nine list test pilot as their background. Two are flight surgeons. One biomedical researcher. One ISS flight controller. Once CIA technical intelligence officer. One "special assistant to the Vice Chairman (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the Pentagon". Five of the nine are officers in the military.

Lets be truthful here, how of those new astronauts will fly? With Orion not due to fly before 2015 at the earlyist (prob a lot later with vibration problems with Are's 1 rocket) and only limit seats with the Russians what chance have they got to go up.

The CIA Intelligence Officer has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. Not sure why the press release was cryptic with the educational backgrounds.

They are just entering training so... how long does it take to become a full fledged Astronaut?

Assuming it takes a few years, they might not even notice the gap.

How many active astronauts are there now? What is the attrition rate? In the past it takes a year of intensive training to become "certified" as an active astronaut. Last I looked there were 80+ active astronauts. What is the purpose of having that many astronauts for the extremely limited number of flights after the shuttle retires. There will only be 2-3 flight opportunities per year for 5 years. Do you really need to have 2-3 people doing the work, 2-3 planning the next job and 70 standing around? Why train someone and then let them sit around for 5 years before flying, assuming that they would be at the bottom of the list? Everyone is so enamored with the Soviets, how many active cosmonauts do they have? Seems like a lot less than the US as there are very few rookies. And remember, even when Orion starts flying to the ISS there are only going to be four seats, not the seven on the shuttle. Sorry, I think NASA should have put the recruitment of new astronauts off until at least 2012 or 2013.

Just picked up the book "Sky Walking" by Tom Jones, a former astronaut who flew in the '90's. He was an Air Force Academy graduate and a B-52 pilot, who acquired a PhD in Planetary Science, then joined the CIA as an analyst. Without the full backgrounds of the candidates, it's just too hard to tell how they match up to previous classes.

I WAS stricken by the brevity of the descriptions of the candidates, particularly how they mentioned only that they had "degrees" from such-and-such universities, without mention of specific fields, or the degrees they hold. It will help to see their full bios when they're published.

As I see it, with ISS human physiology taking a central role in near-term human spaceflight, I'm not surprised at the number of flight surgeons and those with medical backgrounds. I'm also not surprised that there are a new batch of test pilots. I'm a little surprised about having two candidates coming from the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That seems like a pretty small circle to be drawing two candidates from - and with a pretty unlikely application - defense policy for space? As for the CIA candidate, in Tom Jones' book, his background at CIA (and I'm speculating here, since he doesn't get into specifics of what type of analyst he was) may have helped on his Shuttle missions that had to do with remote sensing. ISS is a great platform for Earth Science as well as for micro-gravity research. Perhaps this is the link?

I'm looking forward to getting more information on the new batch of candidates! Let's hope NASA feeds us some more soon,

-Paul

NASA has a glut of astronauts. It's going to be hard to fly all of the ones that are unflown and still give multiple flight opportunities to the ones that have. With the shuttle retiring and ISS flight slots at a premium, I shake my head at every new NASA astronaut selection. This seems like more of a make-work program to keep the trainers trained than anything necessary from the astronaut corps point of view.

The Astronaut Corps could get more dark sky time if they engage in human-tended suborbital science experiments on SpaceShipTwo flights.

Biographies can be strange things. For instance Dr Tom Jones. He graduated with his PhD in 1988 and went to work for the CIA in 1989. No months were indicated. Then he went to work for SAIC in 1990, and he was selected as an astronaut in Jan 1990! So did he work for the CIA for a year? And then for SAIC for a week?

Wow, this is the first class of Gen Xers! Astounding!

And for those who presume that we're full up on astronauts, consider perhaps that it is a good idea to have a pipeline of new astronauts because people do get old and go off to do other things. One can't just presume that the current crop of NASAnauts is going to be around forever.

It helps to think strategically, a bit.