4.12.2021
After evaluating more than 12,000 applications, NASA will introduce its 2021 astronaut candidates at 12:30 p.m. EST Monday, Dec. 6, from Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. After completing training, these individuals could be eligible for a variety of flight assignments including missions on and around the Moon under Artemis.
The astronaut candidates will join NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Johnson Center Director Vanessa Wyche, and Flight Operations Director Norm Knight on stage at the event, which will air live on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.
Following the announcement, media in attendance will have the opportunity to speak with the new astronaut candidates and subject matter experts from the astronaut selection board, International Space Station Program, Commercial Crew Program, and Artemis about astronaut selection and the spacecraft in which the new astronauts could fly. Media must request credentials to attend no later than 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, by contacting the Johnson Newsroom at: 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.
The astronaut candidates also will be available for virtual interviews the day after the announcement, on Tuesday, Dec. 7. Media interested in this limited opportunity must contact the Johnson newsroom at: 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov by 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7.
Following graduation, which requires about two years of training, astronaut candidates could receive assignments for missions performing research aboard the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and launching on deep space missions on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
The astronaut candidates will report to NASA Johnson in January to begin their training in spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills, teamwork, and other necessary skills.
These women and men were selected after completing their applications in March 2020 for a chance to join NASA’s astronaut corps and take part in America’s human spaceflight program.
Requirements to apply included U.S. citizenship, a master’s degree from an accredited institution in a STEM field that emphasized science, technology, engineering, or math, and at least three years of related experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. The candidates also had to pass the NASA long-duration flight astronaut physical.
Get more information about astronaut selection, and for information about the candidates after their introduction, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 6.12.2021
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NASA will announce its next astronaut class on Monday and you can watch it live
The 2021 astronaut class is targeting moon missions, while space station flight status is unclear.
NASA is ready to announce its next batch of astronaut candidates, and you can watch the event live.
The agency will announce the 2021 astronaut class Monday (Nov. 6) at 12:30 p.m. EST (0530 GMT). The event will run live on NASA Television, NASA social media channels, the NASA app and also here at Space.com.
More than 12,000 U.S. citizens applied in 2020 to become an astronaut of the "Artemis Generation", or what NASA has termed the astronauts expected to participate in the Artemis program for moon missions and the planned lunar Gateway space station. Moonbound astronauts will fly on the Orion spacecraft and Deep Space Launch system that will have their first uncrewed moon missiontogether no earlier than February 2022.
The first Artemis crewed mission (in lunar orbit) is expected in 2024 and the first landing mission in 2025. Existing agency astronauts termed the "Artemis Team" will get those first seats, though, along with an unidentified Canadian who will fly on the 2024 Artemis II orbital mission under an agreement with the Canadian Space Agency.
While the new class would be eligible for Artemis assignments eventually, it's unclear if they will reach the International Space Station — even though NASA's announcement says the new astronaut candidates would qualify for full astronaut status and flight assignment to the orbiting complex after two years of training.
Since the new class would receive flight assignments no earlier than 2024, that pegs the timing in the same year as the current retirement date for the ISS. Even after being assigned to a flight, the astronauts' mission training would take another couple of years — meaning the earliest the new class could get to the orbiting complex would be around 2026.
That said, NASA hopes to extend the ISS retirement date to 2028 or even 2030, and just revealed a bunch of commercial space station designs that the 2021 class may one day visit in the coming decade or so.
The new astronaut candidates will report to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston in January 2022, where they will begin their two-year qualification cycle in aspects such as the Russian language, spacewalking skills, teamwork in isolated conditions, piloting high-performance aircraft and learning spacecraft systems.
NASA's last astronaut class of 2017, nicknamed the Turtles, included 12 U.S. individuals split pretty evenly among male and female candidates; several international astronaut candidates also joined their respective country's corps at that time.
The graduation ceremony for the Turtles took place in January 2020, minus NASA astronaut candidate Robb Kulin, who resigned partway through the training.
Quelle: SC