Is it fitness and transferable skills? Seems like it would be most advantageous to be some sort of scientist. With the likes of SpaceX making it all more automated, will the demographic of astronauts change?
According to a pilot friend off mine, during the shuttle era, being an astronaut required some number of thousands of hours experience on jet equipment.
That pretty much eliminated all but military pilots; and commercial airline pilots who’d be taking a huge pay cut.
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