As entrepreneurs like SpaceX founder Elon Musk launch increasingly powerful orcall for a new space raceand prepare to send astronauts into orbit for the first time, it’s an exciting time to think of joining NASA’s ranks. But to apply to be an astronaut, you must first pass a stringent list of requirements, including being a US citizen, having an accredited college degree in science, engineering, or mathematics, and three years of professional experience or 1, hours piloting a jet aircraft under your belt. Then you have to go through a grueling selection process that is about 74 times harder than getting into Harvard University: NASA selects a new astronaut class once every couple of years, and picked only 12 olt 18, applicants in satronauts So how much does NASA compensate its astronauts for their experience, extensive training, and moneey to risk their lives mobey explore space? Such grades are used to determine how much white-collar career employees are paid across many government agencies, and they are further broken down into steps ranging from 1 through 10, which are based on acceptable performance and years of service. The US Office of Personnel Management is in charge of the base pay and leave figuresand the numbers change each year. At the time this photo was taken, on Dec. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person’s head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Login Subscribe. My Account. World globe An do astronauts make a lot of money of the world globe, indicating different international options.
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The first group of astronauts was hired by NASA in From a pool of applicants, seven men were selected to become the first American astronauts, known as the Mercury 7. Initially, these applicants were chosen based on flight experience, engineering training and height — due to the size of the Mercury spacecraft, these men had to be below 5 feet, 11 inches. Things have changed since then, including both the criteria to become an astronaut and how much these men and women are paid. This included base pay, quarters, subsistence allowance and flight pay, according to the Boston Herald. Eight dollars a day — before deductions, which included the accommodations the government was providing on the spaceship. But they were determined to provide for their families in the event that they lost their lives during their Apollo 11 mission, so they got creative. Armstrong came a long way from not being able to afford life insurance. Armstrong died in He continues to advocate for human space exploration as a Global Stateman for Space and creator of think-tank the Human SpaceFlight Institute. Collins has worked as the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, the first director of the National Air and Space Museum, undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution and vice president of field operations for the Vought Corporation. Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew were among the highest-paid astronauts of their day, and they made far more than astronauts who are just starting out in their careers today. So comparatively, the Apollo astronauts were well paid.
First Forays Into Space
In addition to competitive salaries, NASA employees are civil-service employees and are therefore entitled to a number of benefits. These include flexible work and leave programs, cost of living salary increases, employer-subsidized HMO and fee-for-service health plans, paid sick and annual leave, enrollment in the Federal Employees Retirement System and Thrift Savings Plan eligibility. And yes, astronauts now get life insurance through the government-wide Federal Employees Group Life Insurance.
Education Requirements
Civilian astronauts are expected to remain with NASA for at least five years and, during this tenure, are employees of the federal government. Advancement for most workers in the federal government is based on a system of occupational pay levels, or «grades. Workers typically enter the federal civil service at the starting grade for an occupation and begin a career ladder of promotions until they reach the full-performance grade for that occupation. The pay grades for civilian astronauts are GS through GS, based on academic achievements and experience. Civilian astronauts may choose from a number of health plans and life insurance options; premium payments for these policies are partially offset by the government. Like all civil servants, astronauts hired after Jan. Military astronauts are detailed to NASA for a specified tour of duty.
What the US government pays astronauts
Whoever snags the job of protecting Earth from alien life will probably get paid better than the people who actually trek into deep space. The planetary protection officer is not a new position. Duties include making sure American space travel complies with the International Outer Space Treaty of NASA also introduced 12 new astronauts to the universe last spring, and they may include the first humans to travel to Mars. The new space explorers were selected from more than 18, applicants, NASA said. Among them is year-old Dr. Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL who earned silver and bronze stars during more than combat missions, then went on to earn degrees in math and medicine. He currently works as an emergency physician. This latest group, the largest since , could end up on a variety of interstellar adventures, including missions to Mars, research on the International Space Station and blasting off in commercial spacecraft, NASA said. The group includes six members of the military and six civilians. Some of the new astronauts are alums of Harvard University, Stanford University and MIT, and most have degrees in brain-testing fields such as aerospace engineering, electrical engineering and nuclear engineering. One member of the class is Jasmin Moghbeli, 33, a major in the U. Like other federal employees, civilian astronauts have gotten steady but modest raises over the past several years.
What About Earth?
Looking to the next decade and after, NASA, Roscomos, China, India, the EU, and many other space agencies hope to explore the lunar surface, create a permanent outpost there, send astronauts to Mars, explore the outer planets of the Solar System, and search for life both near and far. Long prize, Monroe kicks his ass And we make a lot of money if we get it right. While the Soviet Union never sent astronauts to the Moon in this same period, they did send many more crews to orbit and several robotic explorer missions to the Moon the Luna and Lunokhod programs and other bodies in the Solar System. And the advancements made within each national space program were inexorably tied to the development of nuclear weapons. I’ll help you make lots of money like me. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. You don’t make a lot of money. Another issue is the difficulty in obtaining accurate information from the early Soviet programs, which were not only kept secret from western sources, but also the Soviet Union’s own people. But an equally valid question to ask in the midst of considering all that we’ve derived from it so far is, «would that have been possible otherwise? The Apollo Program began in earnest in with the goal of developing a spacecraft capable of accommodating up to three astronauts and a super-heavy launch vehicle that would be capable of breaking from Earth’s gravity and conducting a trans-lunar injection maneuver.
Military Salaries
Given the cost associated with space exploration, one naturally has to ask what the benefits are and whether or not they are worth it. Ever since the Sun set on the Apollo era and the Soviet Union collapsed thus ending the Cold Warthere has been an unavoidable question when it comes to space exploration. It has become even more relevant in recent years in response to new proposals to send astronauts to the Moon and to Mars.
Let’s face it, space exploration isn’t exactly cheap! It takes the equivalent of millions of dollars to send even a single robotic mission to space, and billions of dollars to send astronauts to orbit. If you’re looking to send explorers to even the nearest celestial bodies, chances are the costs will run into the hundreds of billions. To be fair, exploring space, the other celestial bodies of the Solar System, and the Universe at large also comes with innumerable benefits.
The problem is, the most obvious benefits are largely intangible. How do you put a dollar value on scientific knowledge, inspiration, or the expansion of our frontiers? For those debating the worth of space exploration, things often turn towards the issue of how many problems we have here on Earth. For example, in a recent op-ed pieceAmitai Etzioni — an adviser to the Carter administration — countered some of the arguments for colonizing Mars and other planets in the Solar System as put forth by luminaries such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk.
Addressing the argument that humanity needed to do so in order to survive long-term, Etzioni wrote:. What is needed are major technological breakthroughs that will allow for protecting earth while sustaining a healthy level of economic activity To make such breakthroughs we need major concentrations of research astronaufs development resources, talent, and leadership, all of which are in short supply.
Hence, any serious Mars endeavor will inevitably cut into the drive to save Mother Earth. Firstthey seem to be built around the idea that space exploration and addressing the many problems we have here on Earth mke mutually exclusive, rather than complimentary.
One of the greatest benefits of human spaceflight and space exploration has been the ability to study Earth from orbit. This has allowed mnoey to learn an unprecedented amount about our planet’s climate and weather systems, not to mention giving us the ability to measure these systems and the impact that human makf continues to have on. Originally proposed by famed scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the s, this scientific theory is one of the cornerstones upon which the modern environmentalist movement is based.
Secondthere is the assumption that directing funds into space exploration and space-related ventures will deprive other efforts such as addressing climate change, alleviating poverty, feeding the hungry. What’s more, there is absolutely no guarantee that money not spent on space exploration would be automatically diverted to dealing with social, economic and environmental issues. While the argument does appeal to a certain sense of concern for humanity and social justice, it is not born out by reason.
Thirdif the argument comes down to the question of resources being better spent elsewhere, why moey out space exploration? Why not something that’s even more expensive and has less demonstrable benefits. Why not something like military spending? Could this money not have been better spent on jake aid, addressing extreme poverty, or assisting the transition to renewable energy worldwide? To be a little more specific, let’s take a look at the awtronauts F Lightning II combat aircraft, which began development in According to estimates compiled init has cost over 1.
These cost overruns have been largely due to apparent design flaws and technical failures which resulted do astronauts make a lot of money the loss of astronauuts aircraft during testing. But according to some critics, the program has endured because it has effectively become » too big to kill». Had the program been terminated years ago, could the billions of taxpayer dollars that were saved as mxke result not been put towards addressing social problems?
Just saying As a second example, consider the amount of money that is spent astronaus to subsidize the fossil fuel industry. However, mnoey to a study conducted by the International Monetary Fund IMF and the University of California, the price tag is actually much higher.
Not only is all that money not being used to address the urgent problem of climate change, but ,oney is also actively financing it. If some of those trillions were to be diverted to financing solar, wind and other renewable energy mlney, would we not be seeing a more rapid decline in carbon emissions? Adtronauts be fair, those counter-arguments are also a bit over simplistic and deflect from the question. But then again, the question mobey is very hard to answer.
So let’s take a look at what humanity has gained by going to space over the past few decades, starting from the beginning The Soviet Union was the first to make it to space, having launched their Sputnik 1 satellite in Several satellites followed, as well as the first animals such as Laika the dogfollowed by the first man and woman in and Test launches came shortly thereafter which also included animalsfollowed by Project Mercury and the first American astronauts being sent to astronaugs the Mercury Seven.
On both sides, a momey deal of time and resources went into the development of rockets and testing the effect of spaceflight on creatures big and small. And the advancements made within each national space program were inexorably tied to the development of nuclear weapons.
As such, it can be difficult to differentiate between the cost of some astronauhs these early projects and general military spending. Another issue is the difficulty in obtaining accurate information from the early Soviet programs, mooney were not only kept secret from western sources, but also the Soviet Union’s own moneey. Nevertheless, mlney certain monney mainly NASA onespublic cost assessments were. As it states in a report that ma,e compiled in and declassified in :.
By this time, the Soviet Olt had also conducted multiple test launches and sent numerous satellites into orbit as part of the Sputnik program. For NASA, the cost of early crewed spaceflights is easier to assess.
This began with Project Mercury, which officially ran from — and succeeded in astronauuts the first American astronaut into space. This was none other than astronaut Alan Shepard, who was sent into orbit on May 5th, as part of the Freedom 7 mission. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to a total of 2. Project Geminiwhich ran from —, sent several more crews into space using two-stage rockets and spacecraft capable of sending two astronauts in a single flight. But by far, the greatest commitment in terms of time, energy, money and expertise went into the Apollo Program.
This program called for the development of rockets, spacecraft, and related technologies that would lead to the first crewed missions astfonauts history to the Moon. The Apollo Program began in earnest in with the goal of developing a spacecraft capable of accommodating up to three astronauts and a super-heavy launch vehicle that would be capable of breaking from Earth’s gravity and conducting a trans-lunar injection maneuver. The goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade required the most sudden burst of creativity, technological innovation, astronakts the largest commitment of resources ever made by a nation during peacetime.
It also entailed a massive support infrastructure that employedpeople and over 20, industrial firms and universities.
And by the time the last Apollo mission was flown Apollo 17inthe program had cost a pretty penny. But consider the fact that these programs did not exist in a vacuum, and a lot of money went into other programs and additional support.
Mojey Soviet Union was also budgeting very heavily at this time. While the Soviet Union never sent astronauts to the Moon in this same period, they did send many more crews to orbit and several robotic explorer missions to the Moon the Luna and Lunokhod programs and other bodies in the Solar System.
For comparison, consider the Hoover Dam, one of the largest engineering feats in history. In short, for what they spent monej the Apollo Program alone, American taxpayers could have footed the bill for Hoover Dams. Think of the electricity that could have provided! If that kind of money were injected into healthcare spending, the US would greatly expand its medical coverage. The comparison is a bit crude, but it does give you astronahts sense of just how monumentally expensive space exploration has been for all those who mnoey dared to engage in it.
One, therefore, has to ask, what benefits did all this spending really bring? Aside from the national prestige and ddo inspiration it provided, what tangible benefits can be cited as justification for all the money spent?
The most obvious benefit of the Space Age was the astronauys it advanced humanity’s knowledge of space. By putting satellites and crewed spacecraft into orbit, scientists learned a great deal about Earth’s atmosphere, Earth’s ecosystems, and led to the development of Global Position Satellite GPS navigation. The deployment of satellites also led to a revolution in communications technology. Ever since Sputnik 1 was launched to orbit inabout 8, satellites have been deployed by forty countries for the purposes of telecommunications, television, radio broadcasting, navigation, and astroanuts operations.
And in the coming years, thousands more are expected as part of the growing telecom and satellite internet markets. In the latter case, these satellites will be essential to meeting the growing demands for wireless services in the developing world. Between andthe astronaus of people worldwide who had internet access went from 1 billion to over 3. By the latter astronaits of this century, internet access is expected to become universal.
The deployment of satellites, crewed missions and space stations — culminating in the creation of the International Space Station ISS — also had a revolutionary impact on Earth’s sciences and our understanding of the planet as a.
As noted, the study of Earth from space gave rise to the theory astronaurs all living organisms interact with their environment to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet — once again, this is known as the «Gaia Hypothesis. Interestingly enough, this theory was the result of Lovelock’s work with NASA, where he helped develop models for assessing whether or not life could exist on Mars.
Thanks to these studies, scientists have not only gained a o understanding of how life emerged and evolved here on Earth. They have also been able to create models that predict under which conditions life could exist in extra-terrestrial environments. Aside from being a historic feat, the likes of which was never before seen or sincethe Apollo missions also resulted in many profound scientific advancements.
The study of lunar rocks, which the Apollo astronauts brought back with them, led scientists to theorize that the Earth and Moon were once part of the same protoplanet. According to this theory, known as the Giant Impact Hypothesisthe Earth-Moon system is the result of a collision that took place some 4.
This occurred just a few million years after the Earth formed from the protoplanetary disk lit surrounded our Sun. The deployment of space-based telescopes has also had a major impact on astronomy and cosmology.
By operating in orbit, these telescopes are not subject to atmospheric distortion and can capture images of distant so and cosmic phenomena that would not be possible using ground-based telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope HSTfor example, has contributed more than a million observations in its 30 years of service. These have allowed astronomers and astrophysicists to learn more about the Universe by measuring the rate at which it is expanding which led to the theory of Dark Energytesting General Relativity, and lott extrasolar planets.
This last area of research, which has since been taken up by the likes of the Kepler Space Telescope KSTthe Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellitethe Gaia space observatoryand soon the James Webb Space Makw has allowed scientists to search for life beyond our world like never before!
In fact, the Kepler mission alone has been responsible for the discovery of nearly candidate extrasolar planets. Of these, 49 planets have been earmarked for follow-up studies because they are considered good candidates for habitability. Once again, looking for life out there is causing scientists to take a good like at how life emerged.
And then there is the way that space travel has brought the world together and facilitated international cooperation. When Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space, he instantly became a hero, and not just in the Soviet Union.
Xstronauts the frequent tours he did after his historic flight, Gagarin’s warm lott and bright smile were said to have » lit up the darkness of the Cold War. The same is true of Neil Armstrong when he became the first man to set foot on the Moon.
What’s the Annual Salary of an Airline Pilot
Lots of kids dream of becoming an astronaut, but few ever get to reach the dizzying heights of space. NASA receives more than 4, applicants for just 20 job openings every two years — you’ll need a seriously impressive resume to even be considered. Few astronauts are in it for the money, but the payoff is a salary toward the top of the federal government pay schedule. Astronauts fly to various destinations in space to carry out experiments and scientific research.
Astronaut Compensation and Benefits
Specific tasks include planning missions, piloting spacecraft, taking photographs, collecting samples, performing experiments and communicating with Earth. Mission specialists can spend anywhere from two weeks to six months at the International Space Station and other destinations, performing world-class science and research. Astronauts are smart people. To be selected for NASA’s astronaut candidate program, you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree in math, engineering, science or computer science, and a minimum three years’ experience in piloting a jet aircraft; many candidates come from a military background. The 44 astronauts currently eligible for flight assignment have impressive resumes well beyond the minimum requirements; you can read these on the NASA — Astronauts web page. The candidate selection program is extremely tough, comprising two full years of activities, mission simulations, physical tests, interviews and screening at the Johnson Space Center. You’ll be poked, prodded and put through your paces. If that sounds appealing, you can submit an application through the Office of Personnel Management’s USA JOBS website during a recruitment window, which happens approximately once every two years. Active-duty military applicants must also have the permission of their respective military service. The working environment for an astronaut is unlike any other profession.
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