How to Become an Astronaut

Only the most highly skilled applicants enter NASA's space program, and fewer still make it into space. Depending on their background, astronauts train as pilots or mission specialists.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• NASA online information
• Individual school requirements and application
• Health club memberships
• Academic counselings
• College catalogs
• Postage stamps

1. Know that you must be between 5 feet 4 inches and 6 feet 4 inches tall to be a pilot and between 4 feet 10 1/2 inches and 6 feet 4 inches to be a mission specialist. You also need to be in top physical condition and have great stamina.

2. Maintain an excellent academic record in your undergraduate and graduate studies. Many astronauts have doctoral degrees.

3. Choose a scientific field for your bachelor's degree that you can use if you become an astronaut. Possibilities include medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, aerospace engineering and mathematics.

4. Make certain you have at least 3 years of work experience in your field before applying as a mission specialist. An acceptable substitution might be a 2-year graduate degree with 1 year of experience.

5. Have at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft, preferably with flight-test experience, if you wish to be a mission pilot.

6. Send for an application package (see Tips for the address). You'll have to pass the strict NASA physical as a basic qualification.

7. Realize that if you're accepted as an astronaut candidate, you're committing yourself to a training period of 1 to 2 years in Houston without a guarantee that you'll ever go into space. Training will be intense and often in low-gravity conditions. It will include land and sea survival training and scuba diving.

8. Prepare to remain with NASA for at least 5 years if you pass the training period and are accepted as an astronaut.

Tips & Warnings

• You can obtain an application package by writing to the Astronaut Selection Office, Mail Code AHX, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, 77058, or call [phone].

• If you're claustrophobic, don't apply to be an astronaut. Your problem will definitely be discovered.

• Consult the NASA Web site (see Resources) for more specific information about appropriate degrees.

• You must be a team player at all times. Lives will depend on you.