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The NASA Astronaut Corps is a unit of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
(NASA) that selects, trains, and provides
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
s as crew members for U.S. and international space missions. It is based at
Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
in
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.


History

The first U.S. astronaut candidates were selected by NASA in 1959, for its Project Mercury with the objective of orbiting astronauts around the Earth in single-man capsules. The military services were asked to provide a list of military test pilots who met specific qualifications. After stringent screening, NASA announced its selection of the " Mercury Seven" as its first astronauts. Since then, NASA has selected 22 more groups of astronauts, opening the corps to civilians, scientists, doctors, engineers, and school teachers. As of the 2009 Astronaut Class, 61% of the astronauts selected by NASA have come from military service. NASA selects candidates from a diverse pool of applicants with a wide variety of backgrounds. From the thousands of applications received, only a few are chosen for the intensive Astronaut Candidate training program. Including the "Original Seven", 339 candidates have been selected to date.


Organization

The Astronaut Corps is based at the
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
in
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, although members may be assigned to other locations based on mission requirements, e.g. Soyuz training at Star City, Russia. The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts in the Corps. The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the Corps and is the principal adviser to the
NASA Administrator The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to ...
on astronaut training and operations. The first Chief Astronaut was Deke Slayton, appointed in 1962. The current Chief Astronaut is
Gregory R. Wiseman Gregory Reid Wiseman (born November 11, 1975) is an American astronaut, engineer, and naval aviator. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office until November 14, 2022. Wiseman was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 2 ...
.


Salary

Salaries for newly hired civilian astronauts are based on the federal government's
General Schedule The General Schedule (GS) is the predominant pay scale within the United States civil service. The GS includes the majority of white collar personnel (professional, technical, administrative, and clerical) positions. , 71 percent of federal civili ...
pay scale for grades GS-11 through GS-14. The astronaut's grade is based on his or her academic achievements and experience. Astronauts can be promoted up to grade GS-15. As of 2015, astronauts based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, earn between $66,026 (GS-11 step 1) and $158,700 (GS-15 step 8 and above). Military astronauts are detailed to the Johnson Space Center and remain on active duty for pay, benefits, leave, and similar military matters.


Qualifications

There are no age restrictions for the NASA Astronaut Corps. Astronaut candidates have ranged between the ages of 26 and 46, with the average age being 34. Candidates must be U.S. citizens to apply for the program. There are three broad categories of qualifications: education, work experience, and medical. Candidates must have a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
from an accredited institution in
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
, biological science,
physical science Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Physi ...
or
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
. The degree must be followed by at least two to three years of related, progressively responsible, professional experience (graduate work or studies) or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. An advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for experience, such as a doctoral degree (which counts as the two years experience). Teaching experience, including experience at the K – 12 levels, is considered to be qualifying experience. Candidates must have the ability to pass the NASA long-duration space flight physical, which includes the following specific requirements: * Distant and near visual acuity: Must be correctable to 20/20, each eye separately (corrective lenses such as glasses are allowed) * The refractive surgical procedures of the eye, PRK and
LASIK LASIK or Lasik (''laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis''), commonly referred to as laser eye surgery or laser vision correction, is a type of refractive surgery for the correction of myopia, hyperopia, and an actual cure for astigmatism, since ...
, are allowed, providing at least 1 year has passed since the date of the procedure with no permanent adverse after effects. * Blood pressure not to exceed 140/90 measured in a sitting position * Standing height between 62 and 75 inches


Members


Astronauts

, the corps has 41 "active" astronauts consisting of 16 women and 25 men or 39.0% female and 61.0% male The highest number of active astronauts at one time was in 2000 when there were 149. All of the current astronaut corps are from the classes of 1996 (Group 16) or later. There are currently 19 "international active astronauts", "who are assigned to duties at the Johnson Space Center", who were selected by their home agency to train as part of a NASA Astronaut Group and serve alongside their NASA counterparts. While the international astronauts, Payload Specialists, and Spaceflight Participants go through training with the NASA Astronaut Corps, they are not considered members of the corps.


Management astronauts

, the corps has 16 "management" astronauts, who remain NASA employees but are no longer eligible for flight assignment. The current management astronauts are assigned to NASA operations as follows: Ames Research Center (one astronaut);
Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
(one);
Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
(ten);
Langley Research Center The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. It directly borders Langley Air Force Base and the Back River on the Chesapeake Bay. LaRC has fo ...
(one); and NASA Headquarters (three). The current management astronauts includes personnel chosen to join the corps as early as 1985 (
Group 11 Group 11, by modern IUPAC numbering, is a group of chemical elements in the periodic table, consisting of copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au), and roentgenium (Rg), although no chemical experiments have yet been carried out to confirm that ...
, Associate Administrator Robert D. Cabana) and as recently as 2009 ( Group 20,
Serena Auñón-Chancellor Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor (born April 9, 1976) is an American physician, engineer, and NASA astronaut. She visited the ISS as a flight engineer for Expedition 56/Expedition 57, 57 on the International Space Station. Education Auñón-Chanc ...
of medical and
CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
branches).


Astronaut candidates

The term "Astronaut Candidate" (informally "ASCAN") refers to individuals who have been selected by NASA as candidates for the NASA Astronaut Corps and are currently undergoing a candidacy training program at the
Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
. The most recent class of Astronaut Candidates was selected in 2021. Only three Astronaut Candidates have resigned before completing training:
Brian O'Leary Brian Todd O'Leary (January 27, 1940 – July 28, 2011) was an American scientist, author, and NASA astronaut. He was part of NASA Astronaut Group 6, a group of scientist-astronauts chosen with the intention of training for the Apollo App ...
and Anthony Llewellyn, both from the 1967 Selection Group, and Robb Kulin of the 2017 group. O'Leary resigned in April 1968 after additional Apollo missions were cancelled, Llewellyn resigned in August 1968 after failing to qualify as a jet pilot, and Kulin resigned in August 2018 for unspecified personal reasons.chron.com/news/nation-world/space/article/2017-NASA-astronaut-candidate-resigning-this-month-13185081.php


Former members

Selection as an Astronaut Candidate and subsequent promotion to Astronaut does not guarantee the individual will eventually fly in space. Some have voluntarily resigned or been medically disqualified after becoming astronauts but before being selected for flights. Civilian candidates are expected to remain with the Corps for at least five years after initial training; military candidates are assigned for specific tours. After these time limits, members of the Astronaut Corps may resign or retire at any time. Three members of the Astronaut Corps ( Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger B. Chaffee) were killed during a ground test accident while preparing for the
Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
mission. Eleven were killed during spaceflight, on Space Shuttle missions
STS-51-L STS-51-L was the 25th mission of the NASA Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. Planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a ...
and STS-107. Another four (
Elliot See Elliot McKay See Jr. (July 23, 1927 – February 28, 1966) was an American engineer, naval aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut. See received an appointment to the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1945. He graduated in 1949 with a Ba ...
, Charles Bassett,
Theodore Freeman Theodore Cordy "Ted" Freeman (February 18, 1930 – October 31, 1964), was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. Selected in the third group of NASA astronauts in 1963, he was killed a year ...
, and Clifton Williams) were killed in
T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to: * T38 (classification), a disability sport classification for disability athletics * T.38, a standard for fax over IP * T-38 tank, a Soviet light tank * Allison T38, a turboprop aircraft engine * Northrop T-38 Talon, a U.S ...
plane crashes during training for space flight during the
Gemini Gemini may refer to: Space * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac ** Gemini in Chinese astronomy * Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program * Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Northern ...
and Apollo programs. Another was killed in a 1967 automobile accident, and another died in a 1991 commercial airliner crash while traveling on NASA business. Two members of the Corps have been involuntarily dismissed: Lisa Nowak and
William Oefelein William Anthony "Bill" Oefelein (; born March 29, 1965) is an American freelance adventure writer and photographer and former NASA astronaut who, on his only spaceflight, piloted the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission. Oefelein gained media attention ...
. Both were returned to service with the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
.


Selection groups

*1959 Group 1 – "The Mercury Seven" *1962
Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to: * Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification * Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962 * Group 2 (racing), an FIA classification for cars in a ...
– "The New Nine" *1963 Group 3 – "The Fourteen" *1965 Group 4 – "The Scientists" *1966 Group 5 – "The Original 19" *1967 Group 6 – "The Excess Eleven (XS-11)" *1969 Group 7 – USAF MOL Transfer, no official nickname (Astronauts selected from the
Manned Orbiting Laboratory The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a s ...
program) *1978
Group 8 Group 8 may refer to: * Group 8 element, a series of elements in the Periodic Table * Group 8 Rugby League, a rugby league competition * Group 8 (Sweden), a feminist movement in Sweden * Group VIII, former nomenclature for the noble gas The nob ...
– "Thirty-Five New Guys (TFNG)" (class included first female candidates) *1980 Group 9 – "19+80" *1984
Group 10 Group 10, numbered by current IUPAC style, is the group of chemical elements in the periodic table that consists of nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), and darmstadtium (Ds). All are d-block transition metals. All known isotopes of darm ...
– "The Maggots" *1985
Group 11 Group 11, by modern IUPAC numbering, is a group of chemical elements in the periodic table, consisting of copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au), and roentgenium (Rg), although no chemical experiments have yet been carried out to confirm that ...
– no official nickname *1987 Group 12 – "The GAFFers" *1990
Group 13 The Group 13 network ( pl, Trzynastka, Yiddish: ''דאָס דרײַצענטל'') was a Jewish Nazi collaborationist organization in the Warsaw Ghetto during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. The rise and fall of the Group ...
– "The Hairballs" *1992 Group 14 – "The Hogs" *1994 Group 15 – "The Flying Escargot" *1996
Group 16 The chalcogens (ore forming) ( ) are the chemical elements in group 16 of the periodic table. This group is also known as the oxygen family. Group 16 consists of the elements oxygen (O), sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and the radioa ...
– "The Sardines" (largest class to date, 35 NASA candidates and nine international astronauts) *1998
Group 17 The halogens () are a group (periodic table), group in the periodic table consisting of five or six chemically related chemical element, elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), astatine (At), and tennessine (Ts). In the ...
– "The Penguins" *2000
Group 18 The noble gases (historically also the inert gases; sometimes referred to as aerogens) make up a class of chemical elements with similar properties; under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low chemi ...
– "The Bugs" *2004 Group 19 – "The Peacocks" *2009 Group 20 – "The Chumps" *2013 Group 21 – "The 8-Balls" (composed of four male and four female candidates; highest percentage of females) *2017 Group 22 – "The Turtles" *2022 Group 23 – "The Flies"


See also

* Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps * Canadian Astronaut Corps *
Chinese Astronaut Corps The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps (PLAAC; ), also known as the Chinese Astronaut Corps (), is a Beijing-based sub-corps-level People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) unit directly under the PLASSF Space Systems Depar ...
* European Astronaut Corps * List of astronauts by selection *
Human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
*
History of spaceflight Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth. First successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in the 1920s Germany by Frit ...


Notes


References


Astronaut Candidate Program
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Citations


Sources

*


External links







{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasa Astronaut Corps * Lists of astronauts NASA lists NASA astronauts Human spaceflight programs