NASA now accepting applications for astronaut position

I'll be honest. I did not realize that you could just apply to be an astronaut like it was any old job listing. Nor would I have guessed that the NASA "Apply to be an Astronaut!" recruitment video would feel as odd and strangely lame as the recruitment video for any old normal job.

Astronauts: They're just like us! (But with way more awesome resumes.)

Video Link

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.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: jobs • Science • Space • Weird

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Mark Langford

Maybe the video’s lame, but what about the company vehicle!
http://www.chicwriter.com/ Shevonne

If I put “Astronaut” as one of my previous job positions, who would deny me a job?
http://twitter.com/kevinfreitas K to the F

I sent away for an application back in college and, though I didn’t fill it out, was cool to get it in the mail. Think I’ll fill it out this time. :)
simonbarsinister

Curious time to become a NASA astronaut, since they don’t have any vehicles to fly in.
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Become an astronaut! Visit space, Russia.
  - Sapa
    
    I thought China – they dance to the right tune
- GlenBlank
  
  Curious time to become a NASA astronaut, since they don’t have any vehicles to fly in.
  
  Sure they do. It’s called a Soyuz.
  
  Oh, did you miss the part about how, in the 21st Century, manned space flight increasingly becomes a cooperative international venture, with personnel and equipment from many different nations?
  
  Besides, if you apply right now, you might have time to finish your training and rack up enough experience on a Soyuz mission or two to be one of the first in line to fly aboard the manned version of the SpaceX Dragon.
  
  The unmanned cargo version has already flown the first of its orbital demo flights, and the next flight – which will dock with the ISS – is scheduled for the end of this month.
  
  SpaceX seems to be on track for scheduled manned flights anticipated in 2016.
  
  Better get that application in soon. :-)
Brainspore

Finally, all those years of following the advice “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is gonna pay off! Time to show up all those people who mocked me for wearing a space helmet and urine-collection bag to the office.
http://libraries.unl.edu dross1260

Alert Navin R. Johnson
Ramone

That video was made in the 1980s, just like NASA’s last space vehicle.
Cowicide

Mars… sounds great…

I think I’d rather the USA invest into a single payer system than a planet far away in our solar system. Maybe cut down on those 44,000+ needless, agonizing deaths per year in the USA first… I dunno…. then spend a fortune flying around to other planets for fun.
- Brainspore
  
  I think I’d rather the USA invest into a single payer system than a planet far away in our solar system.
  
  Sounds like a false dichotomy to me. We could do both if we wanted to, especially if we cut down on some of the really big expenses like the biggest military in the history of the world or our so-called War on Drugs. Instead we’ve opted for “neither.”
  - Cowicide
    
    Sounds like a false dichotomy to me.
    
    Ironically, it’s actually you that just made a false dichotomy by its very definition.
    
    1) I currently want to see tax resources go to healthcare instead of Mars.
    
    2) Does not mean I don’t want to rein in military spending and decriminalize drugs.
    
    I’d like to see the USA invest more in its own citizens instead of Mars. Doesn’t mean I love wasting money on anything else. Trite semantic arguments bore me, so that’s enough for me, thanks.
    - Brainspore
      
      I didn’t imply you oppose cutting military and drug enforcement. I was responding to your statement “I’d rather do A than B,” which made it sound like there is a choice to be made between the two. There isn’t.
      
      The decision whether or not to fund space exploration and the decision whether or not to establish a single-payer health care system are two distinct, largely unrelated choices, each of which should be weighed on its own merits.
Jorpho

Canada did this same thing a couple of years ago, and I kind of regret that I did not even bother considering to look at the application until it was too late.
Warren_Terra

As long as they’re soliciting applications astronaut, they should solicit justifications too. Maybe someone can come up with a reason for the job while someone else comes up with the job itself. Manned spaceflight hasn’t done anything worth doing for about forty years, while unmanned spaceflight has gone from strength to (underfunded) strength.
pjcamp

Live in the Future! It’s just starting now.
CH

Ah… uh… crap. I guess “I really, really, really, really, _really_ want to!!!!” doesn’t count too much on the application?
http://gavinstours.com/ Gavin St. Ours

I made my own version of NASA’s astronaut recruitment video: http://youtu.be/EGI9gb86DQA
http://about.me/tim846 Tim Bailey

The “in space” portion of an astronaut’s job is fairly small. The 2009 class of astronauts is currently slated to start going up to the ISS in 2013. That means 4+ years of training for ~6 months in space. Those 4 years are spent doing all the things you see in the video: training in aircraft, walking through simulators, advising on crew systems for new vehicles, training underwater, and doing education/PR appearances. Being a NASA astronaut means a lot of work down here on Earth!

Just because someone is selected as an Astronaut Candidate (“ascan”) doesn’t mean they get to go up! Ascans work in a highly public field and any personal indiscretion, professional screw-up, or other incident that annoys the boss (the NASA Astronaut Office up through anyone in Congress and the President) can get a mission slot reassigned. There have even been a few ascans that never made it to space! (See: Curt Michel).

All this to say: Yes, the video could have been better. This video does, however, show more of the real life of NASA astronauts.
ridestowe

anyone else reminded of starship troopers?
http://twitter.com/danielsoneg Eric Danielson

Is the cheesy pseudo-rock music _really_ neccessary? Does NASA really have that hard a time convincing people it’s ‘extreme’ enough? I mean, they Literally Send Things Into Space. Boldly going, and all that. To whom does that not sell itself?

“Oh, you’re a stunt driver? That’s pretty interesting. Who, me? Oh, I sit on top of several thousand tons of explosive materials and get shot into f*cking space. Yeah, it’s alright, I guess.”