NASA receives 18,300 applications for a handful of astronauts of the future

NASA is on a recruitment mission and has received a total of 18,300 applications from Americans of various backgrounds - the numbers have smashed the previous record of 8,000 set back in 1978, and is almost three times the number of applications received in 2012 when the space agency last put out the call.
This has been reported in digitaltrends.com dated 22 February 2016.

The window for applications had remained open for nine weeks before closing last Thursday and it will now be an 18-month process through which NASA will identify between eight and fourteen highly competent candidates to undertake assignments of an astronaut.
Beginning 2017, the final selection of hopefuls will have to undergo nearly two years of initial training on spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills and teamwork, Russian language, and other requisite skills. Those who complete the training program will be given technical duties at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Later thy would be assigned to either the International Space Station, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for deep space exploration (Orion’s first manned space flight beyond the moon could happen in 2023), or one of two American-made commercial crew spacecraft currently in development – Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner or the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
It is expected that a few of these talented men and women will become the astronauts who will once again launch to space from U.S. soil on American-made spacecraft. Right now with the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet five years ago, NASA has to rely on Russian rockets to get its astronauts into space. The U.S. is now getting ready to return to the fold with manned launches from home soil.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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