Now hiring: One astronaut

Is this "help wanted" ad for an astronaut the most awesome job post ever, or sad reminder that even the incredibly far-freakin-out can become sort of mundane under the right context? (Thanks, Andrew Grant!)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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VagabondAstronomer

Given the current state of our space program, they’ll probably get plenty of applicants…
Antinous / Moderator

There have to be some steps between the current reality and “Wanna go to Mars for lunch?”
Terry

Wanted: Caped Crime Fighter. Experience necessary. Own Bat-cave a plus.

Kind of surreal, actually.
ssll

I think that legally you have to post an advertisement for a job publicly somewhere, even if you know there’s only a small pool of candidates and easy ways to get in touch with them on a more personal level.
Anonymous

I can’t wait to see this referenced in the Right Stuff II, the Rightening.
cymk

Interesting, but in the end do you really need to know astrophysics to fly in space? Hell if they can send up monkeys they could send up your average joe with minimal training.
igpajo

I find it kind funny to think that after becoming an astronaut, and achieving some mission time, you might actually at some point be trolling space agency want ads looking for work.
IWood

I’cn fly. I’m pilot.
Anonymous

Oh, it gets weirder.

I was contacted by a private space flight company because of my posts to BB, Slashdot, and an on-line comic strip. They data-mined the net and figured out who I was and how to contact me, so they could ask me if I’d be interested in designing and building their static test facility’s computing infrastructure. I was impressed, because I am actually well qualified to do that; but unfortunately their facilities are far away from anywhere I want to live, so I regretfully turned them down.
Brainspore

They say you’re supposed to dress for the job you want, not the job you have- but until now showing up to the office in a space suit just seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
Vidya108

Having just come back from seeing ‘Avatar’, this doesn’t sound far-fetched at all.
Kerouac

Remember when every boy in America wanted to be an astronaut? Now they have to advertise… how sad is that? What’s next? Want ads for Cowboy, Video Game Tester, or Male Porn Star?