Space program

[Renegade One]

This is purely my own speculation: I think they will always want at least one career military aviator per vessel, because the aforementioned skills will likely be more developed in him/her than they will in the other astronauts.

FIFY. But you're correct…purely your own speculation. Not without statistical data to back it up, I admit…but speculation at this point.

The professor of mine (consultant) went on to say that becoming an astronaut is not as simple as getting your degree and the few years of relevant experience. That's for the guys who get their STEM degrees, fly in the military, and become test pilots towards the end (flying is not a STEM job). They're really looking for people with a solid decade long work history with recommendations at all levels, various awards, and a plethora of projects to their names.

May be good advice….I dunno. Would be better if your professor was a former Astronaut, but I can't dispute it out-of-hand. I have no advice for you about the whole "decade long work history with recommendations at all levels, various awards, and a plethora of projects to their names.". Not sure CFC Coordinator, Air Show/Fleet Week Booth Coordinator, Unit Urinalysis Coordinator, Legal and/or PAO Officer will exactly light up your resume…but that's some of the stuff that MAY be in your immediate post-OCS resume. It does get better…but even USNTPS needs a Urinalysis and CFC Coordinator….

Look at any astronaut bio, these guys and gals are mostly high-speed types who blast through education and have experience in tons of different fields before getting picked up.

FIFY…again. But no sweat…there's always room for an individual like yourself who, if I can "steal your own words" from your other thread: "I made the mistake of choosing a worthless degree."

Maybe becoming a "high-speed type" should be your first and primary goal (no pun intended…). Good luck at OCS. Might I recommend that you keep the whole "Astronaut Thing" kinda on the "down low" during your time at NPT?

 

[TolgaK]

The professor I had did a lot of work with NASA, specifically with astronauts. My talks with employees of NASA, (one was a guy I've jumped with out of DeLand) have confirmed it. NASA is really big on qualifications. As the prof described, people who end up astronauts generally have a long and varied work experience. Words out of his mouth "You can't expect to be competitive for it until your 40s."

As far as my speculation, it's just what I could reason based on my idea of NASA's mentality on qualification.

Info.

I should've known my posts would be connected by someone. I don't want to turn this into a thread about me.

 

[Swanee]

The latest guys to go to space are not NASA types. The whole industry is going towards the private sector, and a there are indeed guys with no military experience getting hired to test new vehicles. Keep that one in the back burner.

 

[Flash]

......NASA is really big on qualifications. As the prof described, people who end up astronauts generally have a long and varied work experience. Words out of his mouth "You can't expect to be competitive for it until your 40s.".......

I don't think that is good info, especially when it comes to military astronauts. Historically military aviators have generally been picked as O-4s or even senior O-3s, that means they were often picked when they were in their early to mid 30s and sometimes younger. The Kelly twins were both LTs when selected as astronauts. And it looks like they want someone who will be a viable and productive astronaut for a decade or so, looking at their records you can see that many astronauts took about 10 years or so to do 3 or 4 flights. A lot did less and a few did more but 3 to 4 missions in the Shuttle seems to be the average, especially for the military aviator astronauts.

Selecting someone in their 40s limits how long they will be a viable astronaut since most are retired from spaceflight by their mid to late 50s. So not being competitive until you are in your 40's? Not so much. Civilian candidates might be selected at a later age but viability is still a factor, especially when we there are so few astronauts actually making it to space right now and it will take years for many current candidates to make their first space flight. There is a bit of flux with the Shuttle now retired but it doesn't appear the latest candidate selections are far from what NASA has selected in the past.

......Not sure the program is still taking applicants or not, it's been a couple years since anything came across the NAVADMINs:

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents/NAVADMINS/NAV2011/NAV11362.txt

Are you sure? That message looks like it says FY 12..... It is the Navy's way of screening the candidates they put into to NASA, I have a buddy who has been selected several times but hasn't been called up to the big leagues yet.

 

[Flash]

The latest guys to go to space are not NASA types. The whole industry is going towards the private sector, and a there are indeed guys with no military experience getting hired to test new vehicles. Keep that one in the back burner.

With the exception of the SpaceShipOne none of those private ventures have made it to space with astronauts, yet. They will but it that is still be a few more years in the future.

 

[phrogdriver]

We should admit to ourselves that we're really pulling things completely out of our asses. This is a transitional time for the manned space program. Past experience isn't necessarily a predictor of future results. The demand for new military astronauts has pretty much gone to zero, and while they will eventually need them again, I doubt it will be in the same numbers as before. Low-earth orbit is going to be served by private companies. The ISS is going to mostly be served by mission specialists, not pilots. If we ever go to the moon and Mars, there will probably be some demand, but not enough to plan on. NASA has a very deep bench right now.

If you want to fly, fly, but don't plan your whole life around something that's something of a low probability shot.

 

[wlawr005]

Pilots well versed in high-speed/complex aircraft develop decision making skills in a complex and constantly changing environment while interfacing with a machine and dealing with time and physiological constraints, all while being able to remember and apply relevant information from volumes of knowledge.

Pretty much sums up my BI flights...

 

[paddybh1583]

Each of the Astronauts qualified with the T-38 talon and solo'd each one regularly regardless of who they were..

They fly the T-38's into Long Beach quite often from El Paso. The downgrade from a shuttle to a trainer must be disappointing.

 

[bert]

The latest guys to go to space are not NASA types. The whole industry is going towards the private sector, and a there are indeed guys with no military experience getting hired to test new vehicles. Keep that one in the back burner.

There may be some with no military experience, but none have ever made it through the first resume cut at my company, and I suspect they are fairly rare. (Much like there are some test guys at OEMs who never flew military, but again they are the exceptions).

 

[The Chief]

Anybody have any experience with the space program? I know alot of Navy guys go into the Astronaut Corp...

I read your post as actually two parts, the second a subset of the first.

The second part has been addressed ad nauseum to wit the only game re manned space flight is the Soyuz (family) . The way that game works: NASA recruits mission specialists, sends them to DLI for a year to learn Russian. Then to Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan, (formerly known by us as the Tyuratam Missile Range (TTMTR) circa USSR era. Then they just might stuff you in the Soyuz for a ride to the ISS. Riding Rockets by Mullane is an entertaining book on this subject and the alleged reason for the overwhelming preponderance of former Navy pilots in our own astronaut program. I have my own views of the reason.

The first part, more broadly, yes I have. Space is still an exciting game, I believe. Last century, I was involved at the Naval Space Command, Dahlgren VA as part of the NAVTELCOM team (FSOC). In about 2002, Naval Space Command morph’d into the AF’s 20th Space Control Squadron, Det 1. Involvement was something called The Fence and Chambered Round, remnants still remain I understand.

The Navy has a Space Cadre. The Navy’s Space Cadre is composed of pilots & NFO’s with a SUBSPEC codes 5500 and 6206. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) maintains a field office in NRO, Chantilly VA staffed by selected pilots and NFO’s as well as Aerospace Engineering Duty Officers (1510). Numbers I believe are 75 AEDO’s at Chantilly, O-4 thru O-7. A whole lot to do with Astro engineering and nothing or at least little to do with manned space flight.

Hope you find this useful. NegRep for your post seemed over the top, might even have been misplaced.

 

[HuggyU2]

Each of the Astronauts qualified with the T-38 talon and solo'd each one regularly regardless of who they were.

Just to clarify, most of the astronauts to NOT fully qualify in the T-38. Most are Mission Specialists, and they only fly in the back cockpit.

 

[Renegade One]

They fly the T-38's into Long Beach quite often from El Paso. The downgrade from a shuttle to a trainer must be disappointing.

Unless you're really into the whole "stick and throttle flying" thing. Any "average hour" in a T-38 probably has more of that than any "average hour" in the Shuttle.

No personal experience at all to support any of that, of course…just a guess.

 

[jmcquate]

Unless you're really into the whole "stick and throttle flying" thing. Any "average hour" in a T-38 probably has more of that than any "average hour" in the Shuttle.

No personal experience at all to support any of that, of course…just a guess.

On the way home there is no throttle on the Shuttle. The Pilots/Mission Commanders put in (or did) a lot of time in the sims and a Falcon with a digital flight control system programed to simulate the flying brick. All of them that I interacted with were quite proud of dead sticking the beast. The T-38s were block 1 (at least when I spent time at Ellington) with glass cockpit upgrades and they got to use them like retal cars.......have to go to KSC, MSC, a high school talk, take a T-38.

 

[Flash]

On the way home there is no throttle on the Shuttle. The Pilots/Mission Commanders put in (or did) a lot of time in the sims and a Falcon with a digital flight control system programed to simulate the flying brick. All of them that I interacted with were quite proud of dead sticking the beast. The T-38s were block 1 (at least when I spent time at Ellington) with glass cockpit upgrades and they got to use them like retal cars.......have to go to KSC, MSC, a high school talk, take a T-38.

The Shuttle Training Aircraft were actually Gulfstream II's with half the cockpit setup just like the shuttle. They did the approaches with full flaps, main gear down and thrust reversers deployed, pilots and commanders apparently had to do 1000 approaches in an STA.

 

[HuggyU2]

The T-38s were block 1 (at least when I spent time at Ellington) with glass cockpit upgrades...

Maybe we are talking something different, but the NASA T-38's were probably Block 80 or 85, which were the last 2 blocks of T-38's produced. There was no Block 1: the earliest T38's were actually Block 20's.

Attn Naval Flyers: a "Block" is like "Lot". That is your bi-lingual lesson for the day.

About 4 years ago, I went to Edwards and did shuttle approaches to touch-and-go's in the T-38 with one of their instructors. What a blast that was.