NASA looking for astronauts to expand its crewed space missions

NASA on February 11 said that it was looking to expand the number of personnel in its astronaut corps which currently stands at a total of 48 active employees. NASA's decision to recruit more people comes as a part of plans to expand its crewed space missions in the near future. According to reports, potential candidates will be required to have a master's degree relevant to the field, be ready to live and work on the International Space Station and have a US citizenship.

Two years of work experience required

According to reports, the set requirements to have a master's degree in mathematics, engineering or science can also be fulfilled by having finished two years doing a STEM PhD or being a test pilot. Having a medical degree in Medicine or osteopathic medicine will also make a candidate eligible for selection. Also, the potential candidate's will be required to have two years of professional work experience and in case of a test pilot applying, he/she will be required to have 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time.

According to reports, one of the candidates, Johny Kim is a physician and a Navy Seal who has been a part of 100 missions because of which he was awarded the silver star. Kim also has a degree in Maths and a doctorate in medicine from Harvard. NASA is planning to select the next batch by mid-2021 after which the selected candidates will undergo proper training at the Johnson Space Center located in Houston, Texas.

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According to reports, the training program will include classes focusing on spacewalking at NASA's underwater Neutral Buoyancy Lab, foreign language classes in Russian, learning how to pilot the T-38 training jet and deep understanding of the Artemis program to return to the moon by the year 2024. The last batch of the Astronaut program only had 11 astronauts and they were selected from a total of 18,000 applicants.

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