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NASA Selects 8 New Astronaut Trainees, Including 4 Women
illiteratehack writes "NASA has selected a 39-year-old chief technology officer to become a trainee astronaut. Josh Cassada is the current chief technology officer and co-founder of Quantum Opus, a firm that specialises in photonics. Cassada is one of eight individuals selected by NASA from 6,100 applicants for astronaut training, though what their future mission may be has yet to be revealed."
Of the astronaut trainees selected, four of them are women — a new record.
I think I've seen this Archer episode.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I would think it would be easier to train PhDs to be astronauts than Military folks to be PhDs.
I get it that NASA started out testing planes, but there is nothing for the astronaut to fly anymore. Even the shuttle should have been automated.
What space ship will they be flying in?
Someone needs to make sandwiches for the other astronauts.
i though they didn't need to cook their food up there
As long as we don't lose them seven at a time, one would think we should be ok for a while, right?
Now they can film two 2 C's in a K commercials at once. IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
12 comments, 0 sexist joke?! What happened to /. :-)
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
is EFNet, and y0u otHers what to
Because the summary couldn't be bothered.
Five are military (four are Navy test pilots, surprising no one, the fifth is a doctor), and the other three are useful Ph.D.s. Cassada really is the only standout among them, because he's a physicist, not a CTO, by training (which will make the scientific community at least a little happier about manned space missions). Meir is an enigma for sure, but makes sense from a strategic standpoint: she's done some time for NASA at JSC and Lockheed Martin doing human experiments and working with astronauts on the ISS, is interested in astrobiology, and worked at Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, which was later used to simulate an asteroid mission last year.
All of them are mostly in their mid to late 30s, which means the next class of astronauts are likely to be Millenials: all you shiny new Ph.D.s should start polishing your resumes for space!
Women will have made real progress when their participation isn't considered newsworthy.
I though we moved past female astronauts as a newsworth novelty decades ago.
How much did that CTO pay for his spot? He was really that much better than 6,000 other people?
To all of you criticizing the NASA selection process and astronaut requirements without knowing sh*t about it, you should see an anime called "Space Brothers" (http://myanimelist.net/anime/12431/Uchuu_Kyoudai) where the main characters tries to become an astronaut in NASA.
I also don't know sh*t about the real selection process, but at least I don't criticize it cluelessly.
Ignore me.
Since NASA currently has no capability to get them into space, what was the point?
Training 'astronauts' for make believe missions on a make believe launcher. If any money existed to pay for asteroid mission hardware the NEA would claim it just like they claimed Constellation.
8 astronauts.... 4 of them women... that means that 4 of them were men......
They are pairing up for the greatest experiment of all time.....
That's right Moon Raker fans....
Shaggin' in Space.
Space Babies!!!!
This is the age of tokenism and they clearly set out to pick 4 women. A simple statistical analysis of their candidate pool will tell you it's highly unlikely that half of the _best_ candidates would be women.
I am recruiting astronauts for my own agency, to fly my own manned spacecraft fleet - which I am proud to say is just as large as NASAs.
to get some eye you8 spare time halt. Even Emacs *BSD is dying Yet rules to follow Gains market share feel an obligation large - keep your
In Soviet Russian Spacecraft,
Vacuum cleans you!
If women are 'the same as men', let an all female NASA build their OWN rockets, guidance systems, computers, etc.etc.etc. and let them do it on their own.
ALL of these women are PASSENGERS, that is all they are, denying four deserving men of the chance to become astronauts.
What next? All eight passengers to be Haitians? How about Australian aborigines? I hear their average IQ is under 70, that should be fun.
What a sick joke NASA and the Western world has become, tyrannised by Jewish communists and forced to go along with this bullshit until our countries have been completely destroyed by 'diversity'.
Are you sick of this yet?
partially at least...
More like changing the oil in your car in a straight jacket following instructions from a blind person...watch some old ISS footage of spacewalks and other EVA and you'll see the poor Astronaut have to, essentially, report every move they make and get a 'yes/no' from Ground Control....every...move...'remove wrench from toolkit' takes 3 confirmations from ground...
'risk management' to the destructive degree...it's psychotic...death by bureaucracy
I appreciate where you are coming from though...
See, you're more right about this than any of us would want to admit:
It's that way **precisely because** real manned spaceflight has always been under the boot of the military/industrial/political bureaucracy.
Operational manned spaceflight means **trusting astronauts** and giving them alot of personal discretion....in the relative sense of course....a smart astronaut wants Mission Control to have thought of everything 3x...
But instead, unfortunately, NASA's manned spaceflight has become a weird sort of academic/bureacratic obstacle course which ends in a roller coaster ride...
That's how I see it...astronaut's call it "Waiting your turn"...
I chose not to go that route with my brief military career...so I'll always wonder...however, **MY** dream was to walk on other worlds...see new horizons with my own two eyes...be it asteroid or Mars or moon return...something...
I honestly feel like I would have to suppress alot of regret if I had worked so hard to become an Astronaut then had to 'get in line' with the others for my chance to play with a chemistry set in shiny metal alpine tent...
I wanted to **fly** to space damnit!
Thank you Dave Raggett
Somewhere in a parallel universe, a Slashdot article shows
...and four of the astronauts are men!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
90 lb of recreational equipment.
Space-X is planning a manned flight in 2015. Space-X will have their own private astronauts. They'll probably be ex-NASA astronauts initially, test-pilot types. Once Space-X has flight crew, that will probably be the place to go.
NASA still has 49 active astronauts, most of whom (but not all) have been in space. They don't have much to do. There are lot of recent astronaut layoffs and quits. NASA had over 80 astronauts at peak. That's not where you go if you want to go into space. It's surprising that they're training new ones, but they probably want to keep the training operation going.
Being a former astronaut sucks today. It's not like being John Glenn. Ex-astronauts used to have a pass to NASA facilities, but one found out last year that his pass to HSC was no longer valid. Even worse, they're now portrayed as unemployed losers on TV. There was an episode of Blue Bloods on this, where a has-been alcoholic ex-astronaut is begging his old friend the police commissioner to find him a job.
now even a woman can do it.
Just a quick book recommendation that addresses (amongst other things) the PhD vs. military tensions during the early period of the space shuttle program:
http://www.amazon.com/Riding-Rockets-Outrageous-Shuttle-Astronaut/dp/0743276833
It also candidly covers some of the pressures of being in the astronaut corps, warts & all. It's also by turns inspiring, tragic, irreverent and very funny, and not at all like many of the officially endorsed astronaut autobiographies. The author became an astronaut via the military track, and describes the mental and sociological adjustments he had to make as an (initially) male chauvinist jock astronaut, training alongside scientists and (shock horror!) women.
Disclaimer: Not affiliated with the author in any way, just a fan of the book.
Yeah, we have astronauts again, even though we don't havea space vehicle. But, we can ride with those Russians whom we need, but don't exactly get along with.
Then again, the way scaled down bottle rocket is ready to be stuck up some astronauts tail, to launch them into space, with no aparent reason other than to occupy the International Space Station.
I know, let's give the astronauts a Guy Fawkes mask to take up with them.
Like hiring bus drivers when you DON'T OWN A BUS.
That's a male-female ratio of 1:1.
Alex, I'd like to guess the mission now..
McCoy: Admiral, wouldn't it be easier to put an experienced crew back on the ship?
Kirk: Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, Doctor.
Military monkeys are controllable where as Ph.D. are trained to think for themselves and out-of-the-box.
Communist micromanagers like the ones that haunt NASA centers and the HQ in DC hate Ph.D.s.
FUCK NASA