Astronauts nowadays are not the same as the ones from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The present day Space Shuttle was flown almost entirely by a computer. A Space Shuttle crew would train for years for one mission, and still they usually messed something up (i.e., launch a satellite into the wrong orbit or lose the tool bag while on a space walk). While astronauts used to be heroes, they are now just some experiment in diversity training.
Dittos that. I knew program had turned into a joke when Christa Mcauliffe was sent into space before the vehicle exploded. She was all over TV. It was a massive PR stunt for NASA that went wrong because they weren't minding the basics like the O-rings