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?
In: 60
It’s because of the transferrable skills. I once saw a documentary where it was easier to train drillers to be astronauts than it was to train astronauts to drill. So being an astronaut isn’t hard, but flying in extreme conditions is and so that’s why they pick fighter pilots. Drilling is also hard so that’s why they chose drillers.
No one has mentioned this. Fighter pilots usually have extensive formal education in engineering and aerodynamics and all that good stuff. When the public thinks of fighter pilots, they think Iceman and maverick, hot shots. While that stereotype is partly true, they are also extremely smart. The ones who become astronauts also usually have continued their education.
One thing not mentioned is that pilots are trained to think in 3 dimensions. This is crucial in space where there is no up or down. NASA considered race car drivers and even Hollywood stuntmen, but decided on a more highly regimented and educated pool of applicants from the military.
Lots of good replies but to add, space craft are very similar to aircraft in the sense that they have complicated systems working with other complicated systems that have a myriad of checklists all in a flight environment that’s potentially deadly, and that’s just the take off and landing. Military pilots deal with this every day. They’ve spent years learning about systems and contingencies. If you ever watch a full start up of even a simple military aircraft like an F16 it’s one checklist after another to ascertain things are simply working. If you want a taste of that, download DCS world, get the two week trial of the AV8B harrier and just attempt to do the by the book startup with random failures on.
Combination of education and skills , also back in the early days of NASA , potential astronauts were almost exclusively recruited from air force test pilots
According to all known laws of aviation,
there is no way a bee
should be able to fly.
Its wings are too small to get
its fat little body off the ground.
The bee, of course, flies anyway
because bees don’t care
what humans think is impossible.
Yellow, black. Yellow, black.
Yellow, black. Yellow, black.
Ooh, black and yellow!
Let’s shake it up a little.
Originally NASA was starting to hire civilian pilots and recruited crop dusters and some women even. IIRC it was Pres Johnson who ordered NASA to use Air Force test pilots (who at the time were close to developing a space worthy craft that would take/land like a jet, till suddenly it was drop everything and rocket someone to the moon asap)
Most air force test pilots didn’t want to because the space program looked like there wasn’t going to be any control, the original plans for the mercury capsule didn’t even have a window. It was supposed to controlled from the ground and the astronaught was just “spam in a can.”
I’m thinking you should have left “in the Air Force” off the end of that question. Especially early on, many of the Astronauts were Navy and USMC pilots. 7/12 men to walk on the moon were Navy. 4 were USAF & 1 was civilian.
Fighter pilot skills and characteristics are almost exactly what is needed from an astronaut.
-First of all fighter pilots know how to fly planes, which is an plus when they are going to be docking to ISS. It was also a plus back in Space Shuttle days since they actually landed the Shuttle like a plane without engines.
-Jet fighters cause immense stress on human body. G’s, acceleration, flights angles and maneuvers all of these are very unnatural for human body and also present in spacecraft and rockets. Fighter pilots are trained to stay calm and collected in under all of these negative and unnatural effects. If someone can dogfight effectively and keep frosty, they can surely do the same when commanding a space flight.
-They have a military background (duh.) Which translates to having a disciplined, methodical, obedient and detail aware personality. This is also importnant during space flight since mission control might and usually will them instructions from earth that needs to be followed without question and without any initiative taken.
-Again, their military background gives them a leader’s personality. Which is needed when you are commanding a space crew. They can keep people tight, take initiative when needed and make tough decisions if they have to.
These skills and traits are what is needed from a member or leader of a space crew. People who are actually flying the ship and coordinating operations. Not all astronauts need to have these skills. For example the Space Shuttle program had 10 positions in a crew. While positions of Commander and Pilot need to have flight experience and only held by Air Force pilots other positions such as : Payload Commander, Mission Specialist, Flight Engineer, International Mission Specialist, Educator Mission Specialist, Payload Specialist and Spaceflight Participant didn’t require to have prior flight experince.
Requirements for becoming a NASA astronauts read as :
“Candidates must have a master’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics.[7] 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.”
It might not be the case so much now, but it was originally. Check out Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff.
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