Houston (United States) (AFP)
The American space agency launched Tuesday a call for candidates for its next promotion of astronauts. Criteria: be American and have a master's degree in a scientific, technological, engineering or mathematical discipline, be a doctor or pilot.
Applications will be accepted from March 2 to March 31, but the final selection will not be made until mid-2021. Will follow training of two years or more.
For the last promotion, recruited in 2017 and "graduated" only last January, 18,000 people had applied. Twelve had been retained.
NASA says it has recruited 350 people since the 1960s, and today 48 astronauts are members of the active corps, based in Houston, Texas.
Their current main mission is to rotate the United States aboard the International Space Station for missions of approximately six months.
But NASA calls the new recruits the "Artemis generation", named after the return to the moon program, from 2024 according to the current calendar. And maybe Mars in the next decade.
"This is an incredible moment in the history of human spaceflight to become an astronaut," said Jim Bridenstine, administrator of Nasa.
The selection criteria are to have American citizenship and to hold a master's degree in the "STEM" disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Applicants who do not have a master's degree may, however, apply if they have completed two years in a doctoral program. Applicants who are doctors or have a recognized test pilot diploma are also considered. Two years of professional experience related to the diploma or 1,000 hours of flight time in a jet engine are also required.
In general, about half of the new recruits are military personnel, including test pilots.
© 2020 AFP