"To illustrate how hard it is to become an astronaut, Kimbrough assumed 4,000 applicants. Approximately 10 percent, 400 people, will be selected as "highly qualified." Roughly the top 100 will get invited to NASA for a first interview. Thirty or 40 will be brought back for a second interview and final selection. Of that number, typically nine to 15 become astronauts."
From: http://blog.al.com/space-news/2012/01/astronaut_tells_huntsville_sol.html
After the 2009 selection, Brian Shiro made a figure illustrating the various stages of the selection. He was also amongst the "highly-qualified" selected group!
From: http://www.astronautforhire.com/2009/01/update-nasa-has-selected-all.html
Good luck to the 2012 astronaut applicants! Looking forward to hearing some applicant updates!!! :)
3 comments:
Just to add some numbers to those above, the ESA competition had >10,000 applications, of which 8413 were 'accepted' (I think this means filled out correctly). I am surprised NASA only has ~4000.
Good luck!
Candidates still have to go through the Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility to see if their body measurements are within the min/max criterias dictated by the selection panel. In 2009, we disqualified a few people for failing three or more body dimensions.
Not to be a wet blanket, but the odds are actually worse, once you cut out those selected as pilots from the military and those who have worked internally at NASA on the space program. Other than those two groups, there are only a few (1 - 3) applicants selected per class.
Post a Comment