You probably have a higher probability of making enough money to book a flight on Virgin Galactic. Right now it’s $250,000 for a 90 minute flight.
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Advice for prospective naval aviator-astronaut?
- Thread starter alexadb123
- Start date
Is that the COVD/2020 price and does anybody know if it's going to get more expensive after the vaccines and the economy bounces back? If I go on a suborbital space tourism flight right now what are my chances of getting the 'Rona from one of the other passengers?
That sounds awesome. Where’d you go down there?
That’s why pretend-actually-go-to-space [or pretend-actually-go-to-the-Moon] is so cool...and having an Omega Speedmaster makes it even cooler...see red boxes below...
Pretend...very cool...
Not pretend...also very cool...
alexadb123
New Member
This may have been true a few years ago and even today, but to be honest I feel like becoming an astronaut in the future will be more about having the right experience and knowing the right people. With more commercial space companies popping up all the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts becoming less selective in terms of basic qualifications.
alexadb123
New Member
I was on a ship so I didn’t stay in any one place for a while. It was mostly the northern peninsula area and a few hops on the shetland islands.
A man can dream.
Aim low and see how far that gets you in any astronaut program, NASA or commercial.
NASA upped their requirements to apply on this board from a bachelors to needing a masters degree and they still had almost 15,000 qualified applicants. If you think the requirements will become less stringent you might want to reevaluate the program as a whole.
So you’re saying it’s .42%, not 42%?
If I were in your shoes with your background I'd give a really hard look at joining up with the one of the new space companies on the ground floor, and work your way into a capsule. Knock off a strong masters while actually working on space stuff from Day Zero. Boresight on getting to the moon and operating a lunar base. Be the Essential Guy.
The challenges your record presents regarding clawing your way up the space elevator through the bureaucracy of the Trad Space pipeline are daunting.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
So you are saying there is a chance LOL
This sounds out of the box but it could be pretty good advice and stranger things have happened.
Think back to the mid-1970s, when the Apollo program had wound down, the last Skylab crew had gone up and come back down, and manned U.S. spaceflight wasn't looking very good. If you wanted to go into space but you weren't either a top military test pilot, or you didn't have mission credentials like a PhD in astrobiology, or you weren't Russian, then perfect hindsight would tell you to start by building a particular, obscure airplane in your garage and fly it to California to show it to the designer... then after about thirty years of hard work you'd get to fly the first privately funded spacecraft on its first flight into space. Not that Mike Melvill set out trying to be an astronaut, but all that is pretty much how it played out, starting with how he got in on the ground floor.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
I'm going to come out and say it:
If you want to be an astronaut then find a mentor and go full tilt into becoming an astronaut. That starts with getting your GPA up and applying for master's or doctoral programs, not OCS, and getting experience in the industry, not the Navy.
It sounds like your academic credentials don't pass muster for the program and you're looking for naval aviation to erase a bad GPA. It doesn't work like that. A stint in naval aviation is a 10-12 year detour from what you actually want to do, let alone somewhere in there the Navy is not guaranteed to afford you the opportunity to get a resident master's. If your GPA is too low for master's programs and NASA now, it'll still be too low in 10-12 years from now.
Not too many people here can tell you whether you can recover from your poor academic performance or not. A mentor with inside knowledge of the industry can guide you on the path to success or let you know whether the astronaut ship has sailed. This is besides the physical condition hurdle you face for both the Navy and the astronaut program.
This is a 'should I enlist to become a naval officer' type question in a different form.
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My personal advice is to show up to IFS/API and primary and all throughout let every single person know that you desire to be a jet pilot and an astronaut. This will endear you not only to your peers but also your flight instuctors. Don’t let any negative reactions stop you! Just keep telling everyone!