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Breakout of NASA Astronaut Corps by service affiliation
- Thread starter BACONATOR
- Start date
There's a reason why, when it came to military pilots, most astronauts were/are Naval Aviators, and NOT AF Pilots.
What is the percentage/numerical breakout?
That's a damn good question. I'm sure I read that somewhere....in a BOOK!
<goes to corner and practices google-fu>
P.S. I know that Col. Mullane (USAF) wrote about that fact in his book "Riding Rockets", so it isn't exactly a biased "opinion".
The article below shows the current breakdown. Only 20 of the current 91 active are USAF. 7 Army and the rest Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Not sure how many of them are Aviators, but it's likely many of them.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/navy_astronauts_040208w/
Well, not *exactly* a correct quote:
So what we're really looking at here is:
21 From AF/AF Reserve
29 From USN/USNR/USCG/USMC
Not really what I'd call statistically significant as compared to what you implied in your earlier statement.
First American in space, first American in orbit and the first man on the moon.......all Naval Aviators. Enough said.
The actual totals according to the NASA website:
USAF pilots: 64
USAF Navs: 1
USAF Flight surgeon/Engineer: 7
US Navy Pilot: 48
US Navy NFO: 6
US Navy Flight Surgeon: 4
USMC Pilot: 13
USMC NFO: 1
USCG pilot: 1
USAF pilots: 64
USAF Navs: 1
USAF Flight surgeon/Engineer: 7
US Navy Pilot: 48
US Navy NFO: 6
US Navy Flight Surgeon: 4
USMC Pilot: 13
USMC NFO: 1
USCG pilot: 1
Link? Is that total or active now? According to this site there are 92 active astronauts:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_activemgmt.html
The numbers don't add up if you are talking about active ones.
Some more fun facts, from the Jan 05 factbook:
http://history.nasa.gov/astro.pdf
Yes, but what is really on my mind is... what % flew jets?
That is the total from NASA's historical astronaut database (in other words, NOT including the active astronauts all ready discussed in the post previous to mine).
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_activemgmt.html
I was trying to dodge working on a Masters paper, so I put them all into an Excel file then categorized each one.
Categorization was based on their "highest" rating at the time of selection to the astronaut corps. In other words, some guys started as Navs/NFOs, then later went to flight school and were selected as pilots -- I counted them as pilots.
For the most part categorization was pretty clear cut, but in a couple cases I had to do some additional internet sleuthing to figure out their actual backgrounds. In a couple cases there were flight test engineers who had verbage in their bios that made them sound like military pilots, but it wasn't until reading additional info at other internet sites that it was clear they were not actually pilots. In several cases, non-military pilots were sent to USAF pilot training after selection as an astronaut, and I did NOT include them in the total. Interestingly, there was one Navy SEAL that was picked to be an astronaut with no military flying experience.
I suppose if someone has the time and desire, they could go sort through the active astronauts, too, and fold in that info here. Here's the file if anyone cares to check my work or add to it.
nzachman
Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
100%. You have to have 1,000 hours jet time to even apply as a pilot.
I did get the humor, but I was actually interested in seeing if you had to have jet time
Does that hold for NFOs? I believe I had heard something about someone from Hawkeyes being selected for the astronaut program; but I don't remember a name.
I'm almost certain sure P-3 guys and helo types have gone in as Mission Specialists vis pilots. Don't remember E-2 NFOs, but it wouldn't surprise me.
I'll do it.
May not get to it until tonight, but I've parsed this data once before in a kind of, "what percentage get jets, leave active duty, get a PhD, become astronauts" search. It's like one or two people.
nzachman
Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
I'm not sure. I know to be a mission specialist you do not have to have all that flight time in jets, but to be a pilot you do. There are lots of guys who are pilots in the military but not pilots in NASA, but mission specialists (One of these guys learned to fly at the airport I fly at, Navy Capt BTW!!).
EDIT: I just searched; there are no flight time requirements to be a mission specialist, but it looks like to be a pilot the 1000 hours must be PIC in jets, which I am assuming PIC does not apply to NFO's (unless the pilot keels over
)
B
Blutonski816
Guest
Little bit of history for you.
Scott Carpenter was from the VP community. His jet time came from his Test pilot experience.