To infinity and beyond

A year after I submitted my second astronaut application to NASA, it would seem my journey in the current selection has come to an end. Multiple reports have confirmed that NASA has already chosen and brought in all interviewees to Houston as of last week. I wish all applicants still in the running the best of luck going forward.

Earlier today, I spoke with NPR's Jacki Lyden on All Things Considered about my astronaut ambitions and the current NASA astronaut selection. Bracketed by great soundbytes from Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the story addressed the future of NASA and tackles how commercial space endeavors will usher in a new era of human space exploration. Other people interviewed in the 11-minute segment include astronauts John Grunsfeld and Michael López-Alegría. Listen here:



One of the things we talked about during the interview was how competitive it is to become an astronaut. Here's how the current selection is shaping up compared with the last one in 2008-2009:

 2012-132008-09
Applicants: 6372(100%)3564(100%)
Qualified: ~4200(66%)~2800(79%)
Highly Qualified: 481(7.5%)~450(13%)
Interviewees: 120(1.9%)120(3.4%)
Finalists: 49(0.8%)40(1.1%)
ASCANs: 8(0.2%)9(0.3%)


While I had hoped that the additional items added to my resume over the past four years would have bumped me into at least the Interview category this time, I am honored to have made it to the Highly Qualified group somewhere within the top 1.9-7.5% of applicants. After all, with the number of applicants in 2012 nearly doubling compared with 2008, the chance of winning the astronaut lottery is much slimmer. In the meantime, please vote for me in the Axe Apollo Space Academy!

I'll close with some fun videos on life in space by current ISS Commander Chris Hadfield:



17 June 2013 Update: Added the correct numbers for the 2013 ASCAN class (49 finalists and 8 selected).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Any word on the next NASA astronaut selction!
Sorry to hear you didn't get selected...
12 February, 2013 12:16
BrianShiro said…
Nothing official from NASA, but some of their statements have indicated that they plan to hold more frequent selections for smaller numbers of astronauts in the years to come. Of course, this all depends on a number of variables like attrition, mission, and funding.
12 February, 2013 12:22
Anonymous said…
So sorry to hear you didn't get selected,but I envy you American because there seem to be lots of chances to be an astronaut in the near future.
In my country(Japan),we don't have any prospects when JAXA will hold next selection.
12 February, 2013 13:57
LJK said…
What a great interview on NPR! I admire your dedication. I myself am an aspiring space writer/philosopher.
05 March, 2013 21:36
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insider tips on NASA's astronaut selection

Image
While NASA wraps up interviewing the second group of finalists to determine its 2013 class of ASCANs, the head of the NASA Astronaut Selection Office Duane Ross gave an illuminating presentation at JSC last Thursday about the selection process.  He covered questions ranging from academic degrees to interview questions, medical screening, and Russian language requirements. Pete Dimmick was among those present in the audience. Here are his notes from the event, reprinted with permission: Today I attended a lecture by Duane Ross and his protege, Anne Roemer. Duane has been the head of the astronaut selection process for 37 years and I had a few minutes to speak with them after the lecture was over. Here is what I found out about becoming an astronaut. I won't discuss so much the published requirements, rather I'll be focusing more on the insider things. There have been 257 NASA astronauts over the years and an applicant has a 0.6% chance of being selected. Of those no...
READ MORE >>

The Astronaut Hopeful's Manifesto

Image
I am an astronaut hopeful – one of thousands of people who somehow never outgrew our childhood dream of going to space. Anyone can hope to be an astronaut, but to be an “astronaut hopeful” one must make a commitment to the goal and proactively work towards becoming an astronaut. The road is long and the outcome is uncertain, but it is in trying to achieve this lofty ambition that we learn to become our best selves. Astronauts train to be some of the most focused, resourceful, healthy and dependable people on the planet. Striving to be more like them can help any person to be more effective in life’s pursuits. Making the decision to do everything one can to actually become an astronaut means learning from astronaut role models and making incremental decisions throughout your life that get you closer to your dream. This week NASA began accepting applications to recruit another class of astronaut candidates (ASCAN’s). More than 6,300 people applied during the last opportunity, from ...
READ MORE >>

Space Studies Showdown: ISU vs. UND

Image
--> Please note that this comparison from 2008 is no longer currently applicable to the current programs offered by ISU and UND. An updated post comparing programs in 2014 is coming very soon! I've been getting a lot of questions lately about the similarities and differences between the International Space University (ISU) and University of North Dakota (UND) space studies masters programs. As someone who has been a student in both universities (ISU SSP '05 and UND MS '10), I am in a good position to compare them. Note that although I was accepted into the ISU masters program, I decided to only attend their Summer Session Program (SSP) instead, so my firsthand ISU perspective is from the SSP rather than the masters. Over a year has passed since I blogged about my decision to join the UND Space Studies distance program. At the halfway point, I can report that I am overall quite happy with it so far. Before getting started, I'd like to thank the folks at ...
READ MORE >>