Wanted: astronauts with the right stuff (… and a spacecraft)

By Jacqui Goodard in Miami
Published on Tuesday 4 October 2011 22:12

IT COULD be considered the most elite job both on and off the planet, a career that offers stellar prospects and, eventually, a little business travel.

Despite having entered a long lull in its manned spaceflight capabilities, Nasa has appealed for job-seekers with the “right stuff” to submit applications for its astronaut class of 2013, as it seeks to bolster its dwindling ranks of space explorers.

Anyone rushing to dust off their CV should first consider the space agency’s strict criteria; applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or mathematics and have three years of “relevant professional experience”, such as technical aerospace expertise or the ability to fly high-performance jets.

Only 330 people have ever made it through Nasa’s demanding astronaut training programme, starting with the Mercury Seven in 1959, the original space pioneers who led America’s first ventures beyond Earth.

Nasa has stressed its lack of vehicles to get astronauts into space, following the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in July and delays in developing a replacement, should not deter starstuck hopefuls from applying.

Under a contract with the Russian government, whose Soyuz spacecraft remain in service, a handful of US astronauts will continue to fly to the International Space Station each year, while a new programme is under way to get a new Nasa rocket on the launch pad ready for its first crewed mission in 2021.

“For scientists, engineers and other professionals who have always dreamed of experiencing spaceflight, this is an exciting time to join the astronaut corps,” said Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

Would-be astronauts must be US citizens – Britons with dual citizenship may apply – and willing to relocate to Houston. They must be in good health, between 62in and 75in tall, have 20/20 vision – glasses and contact lenses are permitted – and be capable of swimming 75m while wearing a jumpsuit and trainers.

President Barack Obama last year cancelled Constellation, the Nasa programme that was to have got the US operating its own spacecraft again by 2017.

Political bickering and financial bartering held up the framing of a replacement rocket-building programme, which was finally announced last month and aims to carry Nasa astronauts into space in a decade’s time.

The lull has sent a number of Nasa’s elite spacemen and spacewomen heading for the door. From a peak of 150 astronauts in 1999, Nasa had only 61 at the last count four weeks ago.