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Astronaut Careers May Stall Without the Shuttle
Hugh Pickens writes "NPR reports that former shuttle commander Chris Ferguson now moonlights as a drummer for MAX Q, a classic rock band comprised solely of astronauts. 'Perhaps we'll have some more time to practice here once the shuttle program comes to a slow end,' says Ferguson, raising the question — what does the future hold for NASA's elite astronaut corps after the agency mothballs its aging space shuttles in the coming months? NASA currently has about 80 active astronauts, as well as nine new astronaut candidates hired last year. But there will be fewer missions after the shuttle program ends, and those will be long-duration stays at the space station. When the Apollo program ended, astronauts had to wait years before the space shuttles were ready to fly, but the situation was different back then. Space historian Roger Launius says, 'Even before the end of the Apollo program, NASA had an approved, follow-on program — the space shuttle — and a firm schedule for getting it completed.' These days, no one knows what NASA will be doing next. Meanwhile, private companies are moving forward with their efforts, raising the possibility of astronauts for hire. NASA administrator and former astronaut Charlie Bolden talked about that prospect earlier this year, saying it would be a different approach for NASA to rent not just the space vehicle, but also a private crew of astronauts to go with it. 'When we talk about going to distant places like Mars, the moon, [or] an asteroid, we will not be able to take someone off the street, train them for a few weeks and expect them to go off and do the types of missions we will demand of them,' said Bolden."
I thought most/all US astronauts were experienced Air Force/Navy pilots? Don't they already have jobs?
bomb the us up set someone
I'm hard pressed to believe that the Space Shuttle is the best idea we've come up with in this industry. When I see people shedding tears over the canceled program, I see the same old heavy client programmers who couldn't adapt to web programming.
Space exploration today is not nearly important as securing votes. There once was a time when industrial might, military might, and technological advancement were yardsticks of a successful nation-state. Granted, much of those things arose from international pissing contests, and the government motivation was more geopolitical than anthropic during the early Apollo times, but there just isn't the political incentive to prop up NASA like there used to be. It is most definately a shame. Hopefully private sector takes over and makes great improvements for the longevity of our race, but I have a feeling it will be less for science and more for McLunar Nuggets.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
There has already been a Max Q
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
God forbid these elite astronauts have to deal with loosing their jobs like the rest of us lowly folk. My heart bleeds. no, really.
Don't they all become NASA administrators?
and hopefully it won't just be government astronauts who get to go. Back when the shuttle was seen as a way to reduce the cost of getting into space, and NASA launched commercial satellites, a few ordinary engineers got to go to space. Of course, Challenger changed all that. And the Launch Services Purchase Act proved that the best way to reduce the cost of launch is to cut NASA out of the picture all together. So hopefully, when the job of taking humans to space has suitably placed NASA in an oversight only role, we'll see ordinary people flying to space again to do economically valuable work. Then the market takes over and everything changes.
That said, NASA will still be flying their own astronauts. If there's any sense left in them, they'll be flying to beyond low earth orbit.
How we know is more important than what we know.
It's like being an ex-fighter pilot. If you've worked in aerospace, you've probably met plenty of former fighter pilots. They're a fun crowd, and they do OK after giving up the cockpit.
Being an astronaut hasn't been glamorous for a long time. Those guys spend far more time doing "Lunch with an Astronaut" than they do flying.
... a manned flight program.
ya think?
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
*BSDc but FrreBSD
It'll give them more time to help solve the Toyota break problem.
Table-ized A.I.
Just do what many do and become Hollywood advisors for space movies.
Virgin Galactic is going to need some space-stewardesses...
Astronauts are generally people in the top end of almost any qualification for a job, even leaving aside them being well, former astronauts, which is itself something in the way of notoriety. Enough to get the occasional free breakfast anyway.
They aren't going to be hurting. These people would probably do just fine if you dropped them naked on a tropical island.
You want people to worry about? I can think of a lot of others who need your help more. Like half the people going to public school.
Without a human-capable spacecraft, astronauts won't get into space.
Now there's a shocker...
May? Astronaut careers may stall without any manned spacecraft for them to fly? How insightful.
In other news, the careers of professional football players may stall due to the NFL's decision to stop buying footballs.
with a man cave simulator.
"In German oder English I know how to count down. Und I'm learning Chinese," says Wernher von Braun.
...for adult diapers.
The SGC will take,.kihi. opps I said to much
Wherein the end product is constrained by the size and functionality of the delivery system.
At least with the shuttle, though, there were no legions of mercenaries possessing ownership of each molecule of the air, adding fees for traversing that molecule, snooping to see what the payload is and altering, impeding, or blocking that payload based upon their opinion of that payload...and perhaps even imprisoning - or worse - the creators or receivers of that payload...
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
When we talk about going to distant places like Mars, the moon, [or] an asteroid, we will not be able to take someone off the street, train them for a few weeks and expect them to go off and do the types of missions we will demand of them,' said Bolden."
You need people who are reasonably stable, intelligent, and healthy. They should also have some medical training for emergencies. SCUBA diving may also help. What additional, lengthy training is needed, and what's the cost/benefit tradeoff supposed to be?
User Error: Fixed by pressing play again to unpause.
A country like the one where this manned space program and a few others are currently being built ?
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Astronauts play stars in NASA mission 'movie' posters: For every space shuttle mission since STS-96 in 1999, which was the first time a U.S. shuttle docked with the International Space Station, the Kennedy Space Center's graphics department has been creating some pretty cool (and kitschy) mission posters.
the only difference is that the astronauts' career is costing the taxpayers a god damned lot of money. let them join the ranks of folk who will never get to fly through space.
"I'm an astronaut" looks very good on the resume. I don't think that the lack of space shuttles would stall their careers.
This is the right decision and it's overdue franky.
It's all been downhill since the amazing achievements of the 1960s.
The entire agency should be dismantled, and at that time the
U.S. government should:
1) Publish a list of X-prizes for space research achievements.
2) VC fund a number of companies designed to go after those X-Prizes.
3) Put a salary cap on startup employees. Weed out the dispassionate.
This has two effects:
It makes the cost of failure a linear and known quantity.
It incentives the people who will make it happen.
About the time that Apollo was canceled I was just beginning to try to figure out what I wanted to do when I "grew up". Until that point, I was thinking that being an astronaut. Yes, the shuttle was being developed, but that wasn't getting any press at the time. So, after graduation I was still on my original choices:
Carter and Ford had basically raped the CIA so secret agent was out. I didn't think there was any money in being a cowboy, but a friend in England suggested I could be a jockey. Fireman was out after my first ride along and I had to look into the brain pan of a kid who wasn't wearing his helmet when he decided to take his motorcycle Christmas present for a spin.
I tried being a cop for awhile.
So, after being a drill instructor, aircraft mechanic, and working in the IC industry for awhile, John Glenn goes back into space and I start thinking, "Hell, the way things are going, my fifth career could be as an astronaut!" But, nooooo, they go and cancel the shuttle and damn near kill the follow on.
So, as of about a month ago, I've bought a ranch in Idaho...
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Pop a message up on TV/Radio "We want someone to go to the moon, send resume here...." and they'd be sorted.
What is this about making a career out of being an astronaut that may or may not ever launch?
I know it hasn't come to this yet, but this is sounding like a rocket rider union coming up if people worry about careers.
Sure, we'll launch, but only if we can be sure the health and safety risk is 0, and if the seat won't be quite comfortable enough, or it might vibrate a bit more than you like, the unions will force you to redesign it. Oh, and remember, wheelchair accessable is a must.
...and truck driver's career hits skids without a truck
a classic rock band comprised solely of astronauts
It is either "composed solely of astronauts" or "comprising solely astronauts". "Comprised" means "composed of".
Time to switch into cushy government jobs in the healthcare business
had become like AMERICA) 1s the during which I suRprise to the short of a miracle project somewhere are about 7000/5 we need to address
We have at least one company(spacex) coming on-line with a 7 person-to-leo vehicle. That will allow for not just a replacement for the shuttle (in terms of human), BUT, unlike the shuttle, it can remain in space for 2 years. That allows the ISS to be kicked up in size. In addition, it will also allow Bigelow's private space stations to come on-line.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
There's no question about it. After 3 more shuttle missions, that's it. No more shuttles, no plans in place to go back, thanks to the genius in chief canceling the moon rocket.
Make no mistake, this is going to get steadily worse. We don't have money for most everything we need - health care, infrastructure maintenance, etc. We couldn't afford to build the interstate highway system any more.
This is the result of all our jobs going overseas, and especially the manufacturing jobs. GO to business school, they'll tell you that there are only 3 sources of wealth: agriculture, mining, and manufacturing. Manufacturing has largely been shipped out of the country, which has adversely impacted the mining industry too. Their good-paying jobs went elsewhere, too.
Until we get it back, we're going to continue to decline.
The thing that is really killing manufacturing is NOT the good wages it pays, NOT the union that ensures those wages for millions of workers, but instead it is the world's highest statutory income tax rate. The US Gov't's corporate income tax rate of 35% is sucking money out of our industries, and chasing their jobs overseas. State business taxes of about 4.5% puts the USA, overall, second only to Japan, which is a couple tenths of a percent higher than we are.
Kill the income tax, or die as a world leader. Its that simple. The best way to do it that I've seen is the Fair Tax (www.fairtax.org) but whatever we use, we absolutely, positively have to get rid of the income taxes, all of them (corporate, personal, social security, medicare, self employment, alternative minimum, gift, capital gains, etc.) or we're just going to keep sliding down toward 3rd world status. The flat tax, BTW, is just another income tax. Income taxes are toxic to our prosperity.
Indeed Richard Branson is looking a bit canny right now, he might pick up a few pilots that need little to no training having already been trained by the tax payer. Typical private sector story, get the public sector/tax payers to provide your staff training and then pick up tip-top crew when the public sector has to offload in time of recession. Over here in the UK they say the biggest influence against the public sector being reduced is the parallel private sector, e.g. private hospitals rely on the public sector to pre-train their doctors and nurses, private security rely on the army and police to train their people on the ground. These private companies will privately scream at the government if huge cuts are proposed because they just don't invest in training themselves to the same degree as the public sector, they rely on the government/tax payers to train and employ their staff until they are good enough to head hunt.
So I think Virgin might indeed have timed this one very well - they have a sub-space ship ready to fly and will be looking to hire crew in the next twelve months. Not sure about the other companies though, your Blue Origin people for example. I can imagine if I was a NASA expert checking out prospective companies and I saw that one of the key pictures on the B.O. home page was of their bicycle rack, I might be a bit worried about what technology they have....
I suppose it's true, "not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up." Or at least in the US anyway.
"Just a fox, a whisper."
i heard nasa was going to start testing the electronics in toyota cars for the acceleration bug - why don't they get these idle astronauts to drive them around the launchpad?
mostly air force officers any longer?
A lot of these people have dedicated their entire lives to understanding the vast sciences and engineering to make it into this program. They have both incredible talent and well developed skills necessary for their highly specialized trade. It's obvious we need to create another multi-billion dollar taxpayer funded program for them so their talents don't go to waste.
In unrelated news, my industry sales were down 40% in 2009, continue to drop for the first quarter this year, and my unemployment is about to run out.
"Can't take someone off the streets, train them for a few week and put them in space."
Why not? Everything about the shuttle is automated. When experiments are conducted there is a health dose of back seat (ground control) driving.
A launch vehicle without a license to launch is pretty much like tits on a bull.
Sorry, there are no launch licenses being given out. You need clearance from both FAA and EPA. Without that, there will be an army of government agents making sure nothing gets launched.
Nobody is going anywhere unless the license problem get solved, and there are no solutions on the horizon.
You think like a ReThuglican Jew
Idaho, enjoy fucking goats you white ReThuglican Jew.
*golf clap* Well played. Always good to see a Lehrer reference here.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
He didn't forget it. The guy more or less said exactly what you're saying when he said that U.S. manufacturing wasn't being killed off by high wages and unions. Believe it or not, it's possible to recognize what a problem taxes are for a healthy economy without advocating that all the proletariat toil for 23 hours a day in the slave pits of the bourgeoisie.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
You are behind. FAA handed out first licenses to these companies quite long time ago. Also, did you not notice that Bigelow has two prototypes circling the earth right now ?
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Its: "Auf deutsch und auf englisch kann ich den Countdown. Jetzt lern' ich chinesisch!" sagt Wernher von Braun.