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Specialists at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine first defined criteria for selecting astronauts in 1957. Candidates were to be younger than 40 years old and no more than 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) tall (to fit the small Mercury capsules), have a B.S. degree, and be a graduate of a military test pilot school with jet qualifications and at least 1,500 hours of flight time. Psychological health was even more important. Astronauts had to handle isolation and possibly fear and had to be adventurous, but not foolhardy. Astronauts needed integrity, ability, and self-confidence to earn their associates’ trust and confidence. NASA selected the first seven U.S. astronauts from 473 candidates after exhaustive technical, medical, and psychological testing. NASA made only a few small changes in criteria until 1965, when it selected the first six scientist-astronauts. NASA required scientist-astronauts to have a Ph.D. degree in addition to meeting the physical and psychological standards. NASA began astronaut selection for space shuttle missions in 1977. The height and age limits are broader for the space shuttle, but education and physical and mental health remain very important. Personal qualities like reliability, trustworthiness, and excellent communication skills are also important. Shuttle astronauts must be highly trained generalists who can handle many changes in duties and work effectively within very diverse teams. Both pilot astronauts and mission specialist applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in math, science, or engineering and at least three more years of progressively more responsible professional experience. The selection process thoroughly examines the quality of an applicant’s educational and work experience at least as far back as the applicant’s undergraduate degree. Pilot applicants must pass a rigorous physical and have at least 1,000 hours of flying time as the pilot in command. Mission specialist applicants must pass a slightly less rigorous physical. Pilots must have vision at least as good as 20/50 and mission specialists must have vision of 20/150 or better. With glasses or contact lenses, astronauts’ vision must be 20/20.
The USSR also went to its air force to choose the country’s first cosmonauts in 1960. More than 3,000 young pilots volunteered for the first cosmonaut selection. After exacting physical and psychological tests, the USSR chose 21 men. The requirements were that the men be younger than 30 years of age, be less than 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall, and be military officers who had graduated from the Soviet air force equivalent of a U.S. junior college. Despite the focus on the air force, none of the new astronauts were test pilots and the most experienced pilot among them had only 900 hours of flying time. One of the requirements of early astronaut selection for both the United States and the USSR seemed to be that the candidates be male. The USSR changed that in 1962 when it chose five female astronaut candidates. All five were veteran parachutists in the Soviet air force. The USSR eventually relaxed the age and fitness requirements, but also required that cosmonauts have more education. The first civilian cosmonauts were chosen in 1963. Many military and civilian candidates joined the ranks of cosmonauts during the next three decades. After the USSR collapsed in 1991, the cosmonaut program shrank considerably. The Russian Space Agency took over a few years later.
The USSR (later Russia) and the United States have always controlled the only vehicles capable of launching humans into space, so only Soviets and Americans went into space for the first 15 years of piloted spaceflight. In the mid-1970s the USSR began recruiting a few cosmonauts from other nations. The requirements were the same for these “guest cosmonauts” as they were for Soviet cosmonauts. The United States first invited foreign citizens to fly aboard the shuttle in the early 1980s, with the beginning of the European-designed Spacelab missions. The first non-Americans to fly aboard the shuttle were European scientists. These Spacelab payload specialists were required to pass physical tests and undergo astronaut training, but their scientific backgrounds were also key in their selection. Nations other than the United States and the USSR began developing formal astronaut programs in the 1980s. These programs were designed to provide a pool of astronauts that could fly aboard U.S. or Soviet spacecraft. Canada was the first nation to develop a team of astronauts. The first candidates were chosen in 1983 with similar criteria to that of the U.S. shuttle astronaut program. France chose its first group of spationauts in 1985. Spationauts must be between 25 and 35 years old, have a degree in engineering, science, or medicine, and have professional experience in their field. Japan chose three scientists to become astronaut candidates in 1985. Japanese astronauts must be under 35 years of age and have a B.S. degree and three years of work experience in their field. The former West Germany announced its first group of astronauts in 1987. The Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI, the Italian Space Agency) chose its first group of four astronaut candidates in 1989. In 1991 the European Space Agency (ESA) created a pool of astronauts from its 11 member nations and Canada. Almost all were scientists. This pool has become the primary source for Canadian and European astronauts on the shuttle. The ESA will also provide astronauts for the International Space Station (ISS). Language skills are important now that astronauts of many countries are flying together. Astronauts flying aboard the space shuttle must be able to speak English and astronauts aboard the space station Mir were required to speak Russian.
Astronaut training must try to prepare the astronauts for the planned and the unexpected. Astronauts become familiar with the spacecraft and instruments that they will be using and the tasks that they expect to perform before they go into space.
The earliest astronauts, those with the Soviet Vostok and U.S. Mercury programs, faced the prospect of being the first people to go into space. Their training attempted to cover every aspect of their missions, every physical and psychological hurdle they might have to face, and many of the things that mission planners thought might go wrong. Mercury astronauts became familiar during training with the Mercury spacecraft and the pressure suits that they would wear inside the capsule. They practiced using the capsule controls in a variety of environments, including inside a centrifuge that replicated the huge force that the acceleration of launch and landing would apply to the astronauts’ bodies. The astronauts went through intensive survival training, especially water survival, since their capsules were to parachute down into the ocean. They also had classroom training in astronomy, aeronautics, and space medicine. Training for Mercury began in April 1959 and ended with each astronaut’s mission. (The first piloted Mercury mission was in May 1961.) The training for Vostok cosmonauts was very similar to that for the Mercury astronauts, but the Soviet doctors kept tighter control over the cosmonauts’ physical conditioning. Vostok training began in February 1960 and Vostok 1 launched in March 1961. Training for Gemini, Voskhod, and Apollo programs built on the experience of the earlier astronauts. Each program required the astronauts to learn new tasks, but the basic training structure changed little. Space shuttle and space station astronauts and cosmonauts usually go through at least a year of training before their first mission. The training can include classroom work, simulator training, survival training, and other projects. Many missions require specific training in addition to the general astronaut training, especially if the mission will involve complicated experiments or maneuvers.
© 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
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© 2008 Microsoft
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