John Glenn's Historic Spaceflight Was No Sure Thing
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Proctor's astronaut finalist interview
7/07/2009 04:18:00 AM
Back in April, I reported that NASA decided to call in seven additional interviewees beyond the 40 they had already selected. One of the people who received that exciting second chance was Sian Proctor, whom I've featured in a previous post. Another was Christy Garvin, who is a fellow crew member of mine right now on the FMARS expedition.
Sian has just posted a lengthy description of her April finalist interview on her blog. The post includes plenty of photos and videos from the experience, including the dreaded colonoscopy and getting to tour the T-38's at Ellington Field. In addition to her back-dated description of the interview, Sian also muses about whether there is a bias against selecting older females as astronaut candidates and whether having a public blog is a benefit or hinderance when undertaking the somewhat secretive NASA astronaut interview. I recommend everyone go over to her site and take a look.
My analog Mars adventure is going well so far. We've been working long days, so it's been difficult to find time to write a quality blog post. I'm hoping to get one out soon.
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3 comments:
I have clarified my thoughts about women being selected in their 40's so I hope anyone who reads this blog will visit my web site. I believe NASA takes the most qualified applicants and that medical issues can affect women in their 40's and their chances of being selected.
As Sian Proctor mentioned, I think the fact that NASA does not hire female astronaut candidates over 40 deserves some discussion and debate here, especially in light of the new astronaut class that was just hired and the 40th Anniversary of going to the moon. The question is while NASA should hire the best qualified all around person at the time of their hiring, should NASA take into consideration gender and physical population factors that may indicate future bone loss in females astronaut candidates as they get older? Is NASA allowed to consider these factors if they want to train and employ in space astrouants ten to fifteen years out from their hire date? Any comments?
It is an intersting question on whether NASA should be able to use population statistics to justify hiring decisions for astronauts, especially if Federal Law prohibits age descrimination over age 40 without a rational basis related to the position? What do other people think?
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