NASA Seeking Candidates For Astronaut School

NASA is preparing to accept their next school of Astronaut candidates with the space agency announcing that they will begin seeking applicants in November.  The company’s announcement comes after a National Research Council report revealed that the astronaut corp. was becoming too small.

Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston told Fox News:

“For scientists, engineers and other professionals who have always dreamed of experiencing spaceflight, this is an exciting time to join the astronaut corps.”

To apply candidates must have at least a degree in engineering, science or math and have three years of relevant professional experience.

It should be noted that those chosen usually have a significant amount of time in their field or significant achievements within their work.

According to the agency spaces are being made available for 8 to 12 candidates.

NASA has also revealed that many of the new astronauts will likely not train for flight school but rather work towards long-duration mission training for time they would spend aboard the International Space Station.

Among a candidates training will be robotics and Russian language training.

Do you think NASA needs to staff more astronauts even though they have recently placed their space flight program in suspended status? I for one wish I had an engineering, math or science degree with significant achievements in my field.