Posted on 06/17/2013 11:50:45 AM PDT by Olog-hai
NASA has picked eight Americans, a mix of scientists and military pilots, to begin training for future space missions that may one day launch them all the way to Mars. The new class includes four men and four women who will join the 49 active astronauts at the agencys astronaut corps at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The new U.S. space travelers, which NASA unveiled today (June 17), could be part of the first crews to visit an asteroid or Mars, deep-space goals that NASA aims to explore. They could also be the first people to launch to space on a U.S.-built rocket since the era of the space shuttle, which ended in 2011.
In the nearer term, the new recruits could launch on Russian rockets to serve long-duration missions on the International Space Station, which is expected to operate until at least 2020.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
per your women comment, why would you knowingly put people up there who have inherently weaker bodies in terms of strength, and less ability to lose bone density?
we’ll be paying for their space-borne osteoporosis, you can count on that.
Let me guess:
Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, William Fichtner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keith David and Steve Buscemi?
What idiot picked Steve Buschemi for the mission and then DIDN’T expect issues???
Private industry will get there first.
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Might be a good gig if you can get the work?!?
Advanced flight school & PR appearances...
....prolly retire before actual mission funding kicks in...
people have left or rotated in non- active status so need a new group had always been this way
What? No Muslims? I’m shocked.
NASA chief rules out manned Moon mission in the foreseeable future
(excerpt)
NASA administrator Charles Bolden has dismissed the idea that the space agency will attempt another manned Moon mission. Speaking with contemporaries, Bolden said “NASA will not take the lead on a human lunar mission... probably in my lifetime.”
Bolden added that if the next administration reverses NASA’s decision it would set back the manned space program in its entirety. He warned that, should we divert resources towards a manned moon mission in the future, we would probably never “see Americans on the Moon, on Mars, near an asteroid, or anywhere” in our lifetimes, explaining that “we cannot continue to change the course of human exploration.”
So now we have 53 astronauts, but no spaceships, and no missions. And they all have to fly four hours per week in T-38 trainers to maintain their qualification as ... wait for it ... aviators.
I'm just so damn proud to be an American these days.
Wonder if anyone of these folks really think they will get off the ground?
Russia providing the transportation?
Paying for a space station and having to thumb rides to it is like building a nice home on an island and having your boat repoed.
The only survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse.
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