No spaceship, yet NASA wants more astronauts
November 17th, 2011 - 1:48 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Nov 17 (IANS) America’s space organisation NASA has launched a massive recruitment drive to find new astronauts, despite not having its own spaceship for them to fly.
With its shuttle fleet retired, many veteran astronauts are now reportedly leaving the organisation, Sky News reported.
While Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise were retired in 2011, Challenger disintegrated in 1986 and Colombia in 2003.
And NASA is now worried it will not have enough astronauts for future projects.
The NASA website has an advertisement that says: “Want a career that’ll take you full circle? Adventure. Commitment. Leadership. Achievement. Apply to explore with us. Fly NASA, where the sky is not the limit. NASA is going places where there are no boundaries. Your unique talents and experiences can take you there too.”
American astronauts are now taking part in other countries’ space missions.
An astronaut recently gone to the International Space Station (ISS) after flying there on board Russia’s Soyuz spaceship.
Reports say that in about three to five years, NASA hopes to purchase trips for astronauts on US-built commercial rockets.
And eventually it hopes to fly astronauts in a US government-owned Orion capsule to an asteroid or even Mars. But those trips may not happen for more than a decade.
To get a job as an astronaut, a person needs a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or maths and three years of professional experience.
- NASA final shuttle launch scheduled for July 8 - May 21, 2011
- Russia not to exploit space shuttle monopoly - Jul 19, 2011
- Private US spacecraft lands in Pacific Ocean - Jun 01, 2012
- Astronauts from Russia, US reach International Space Station - Apr 04, 2010
- Space shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth after final mission - Jun 01, 2011
- Three ISS crew to return to earth - Mar 29, 2012
- Russian spacecraft undocks from ISS - Nov 22, 2011
- Space station crew land safely in Kazakhstan (Lead) - Nov 22, 2011
- Discovery shuttle launched - Apr 05, 2010
- Private spacecraft to make second supply run to ISS - Aug 24, 2012
- First private spacecraft launched to space station - May 22, 2012
- Space shuttle Atlantis makes final landing - Jul 21, 2011
- NASA's Orion 'moon' craft that could put man on asteroid unveiled - Mar 23, 2011
- Russia's manned spacecraft docks with ISS - Dec 24, 2011
- Atlantis docks for last time with International Space Station - Jul 11, 2011
Tags: american astronauts, astronaut, atlantis, challenger, endeavour, engineering science, going places, international space station, leadership achievement, maths, nasa, nasa website, professional experience, recruitment drive, rockets, shuttle fleet, sky news, soyuz spaceship, space missions, space station iss