On Monday, NASA issued a press release announcing they would start hiring astronauts for the first time in four years. Aspiring astronauts have until March 31 to complete the on-line application form, which can take two hours.
NASA has stringent requirements for its astronauts. Applicants must be US citizens with either a medical degree, a master’s degree in a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics) field, or a degree in a STEM field paired with training as a test pilot.
Aspiring astronauts also need to have completed at least two years of relevant experience, or 1,000 hours in jet aircraft as the commanding pilot. They also have to pass NASA’s astronaut physical, for astronauts need to be in excellent health.
NASA had actually announced its intention to hire new astronauts last month, but they didn’t start accepting applications until this past Monday.
The new astronauts will probably take part in the Artemis program, which plans to have human beings return to the Moon by 2024. NASA also intends to send the first woman to the Moon during that mission.
In the press release, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that NASA wanted to hire men and women from “diverse backgrounds” for the new era of “human exploration.” NASA will make its final selection sometime in the middle of 2021, and the new astronaut candidates would begin their training.
After finishing their training, the new astronauts could fly on spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). They could spend months there conducting experiments that will ready astronauts for explorations of Mars and the Moon and benefit human beings on Earth.
The new astronauts may also aid in the development of the Lunar Gateway, which will be a space station orbiting the moon. NASA plans to send astronauts to the moon every year after 2024 to develop sustainable exploration and methodologies that would help NASA start exploring Mars in the 2030s.
NASA’s last “casting call” for new astronauts had been in 2015, and it drew over 18,000 applicants. The chosen applicants then underwent two years of training. Only 11 of them successfully graduated, including Jonny Kim, who became the first Korean-American astronaut in NASA history. NASA held a public graduation ceremony to honor their accomplishment.
Since the 1960s, NASA has trained 350 people to be astronauts, and it currently has 48 active astronauts.
