Here's What It Actually Takes to Be a NASA Astronaut
NASA recently announced its new class of astronauts and their skill set is pretty diverse. So, what exactly does it take to be a NASA astronaut? Yes, Apollo Flew Through the Van Allen...
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When NASA started recruiting for its first astronaut class in 1959, it had no idea whatit was looking for because it didn’t know what was going to happen to the human bodyin space.Basically the agency needed people used to flying dangerous missions in untested vehicleswhile giving real-time feedback to engineers… which pretty much narrowed the pool to testpilots.President Eisenhower stipulated that due to the potential top-secret nature of this endeavour,they should be in the military.And this led to the basic qualifications for the first batch of astronauts.Military pilots who’d graduated from a test pilot school holding a bachelor’s of engineeringwith at least 1,500 hours flying jets under their belts.And we ended up with these guys: three Navy pilots, three air for...
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When NASA started recruiting for its first astronaut class in 1959, it had no idea whatit was looking for because it didn’t know what was going to happen to the human bodyin space.Basically the agency needed people used to flying dangerous missions in untested vehicleswhile giving real-time feedback to engineers… which pretty much narrowed the pool to testpilots.President Eisenhower stipulated that due to the potential top-secret nature of this endeavour,they should be in the military.And this led to the basic qualifications for the first batch of astronauts.Military pilots who’d graduated from a test pilot school holding a bachelor’s of engineeringwith at least 1,500 hours flying jets under their belts.And we ended up with these guys: three Navy pilots, three air for...
