What it takes to become an astronaut | How does NASA select astronauts? | EXPLORE MODE

Summary

The video explains NASA’s astronaut selection and training process, using astronaut candidate Johnny Kim as an example. NASA selected 12 candidates from more than 18,300 applicants for its 2017 astronaut class, Group 22, nicknamed “the Turtles.”

Kim’s background was unusually broad. After high school, he joined the Navy and became a Navy SEAL, serving in the Middle East as a combat medic, sniper, navigator, and point man. He later earned a mathematics degree, attended Harvard Medical School, and was working as an emergency-medicine resident when selected. The video presents his career as an example of how varied and accomplished astronaut candidates can be.

NASA astronaut requirements

• Education: NASA identifies engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, and mathematics as relevant fields of study.
• Professional experience: A pilot background is no longer required. The video says applicants can instead qualify with at least three years of relevant work experience after earning their degree. Flying experience can still be beneficial.
• Physical and medical standards: Candidates must be in excellent physical condition and meet vision requirements. The video says applicants need 20/20 vision, with glasses or LASIK permitted.
• Physical fit: Applicants must meet anthropometric requirements so they can use spacecraft and spacesuits and perform spacewalks.
• Citizenship: NASA applicants must be U.S. citizens or hold dual citizenship.
• Personal qualities: NASA also looks for psychological agility and resilience—qualities that are difficult to capture on a résumé but important for handling challenges in space.

How the requirements have changed

The video contrasts current selection with Project Mercury, NASA’s first human-spaceflight program. Mercury candidates had to be under 40, no taller than 5 feet 11 inches, physically fit, hold a degree, and be qualified jet pilots with at least 1,500 hours of flying time and test-pilot-school training. The early spacecraft required manual piloting, so flight experience was essential at the time.

The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, orbiting Earth on April 12, 1961.

Astronaut candidate training

Candidates undergo about two years of basic training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The program combines classroom instruction with demanding physical and practical exercises:

• Classroom subjects: Space systems and vehicles, Earth science, meteorology, space science, and engineering.
• Survival and operations: Land and water survival, aircraft operations, swimming, and scuba diving.
• Swimming test: Candidates must swim three lengths of a 25-meter pool without stopping, then repeat the swim wearing a flight suit and tennis shoes. They must also tread water for 10 minutes in the suit.
• Reduced-gravity flights: Candidates ride a specially flown aircraft that creates brief periods of weightlessness—about 20 seconds at a time—through parabolic maneuvers.
• Required courses to graduate: International Space Station systems, spacewalk skills, robotics, Russian-language training, and aircraft flight-readiness training.

After basic training, candidates receive mission assignments and are divided into pilots and mission specialists. Their preparation then continues according to their roles.

Preparing for spacewalks and flight

NASA uses the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a large pool containing mock-ups of ISS modules, to help astronauts practise spacewalk tasks. Wearing full equipment, astronauts work on simulated repairs and learn to maneuver in stiff suits. Water does not remove gravity, but it can approximate some aspects of weightlessness.

Pilot astronauts also maintain their flying skills, logging 15 hours of flight time per month, in part to prepare for the forces experienced during launch.

The video also highlights the first all-female spacewalk, conducted by Christina Koch and Jessica Meir on October 18. They replaced a failed power controller outside the ISS during an operation lasting seven hours and 17 minutes. It was Meir’s first spacewalk and Koch’s fourth.

Looking ahead

The video notes that NASA aims to send humans to Mars in the 2030s as part of a five-phase plan to extend human presence beyond Earth, potentially including habitation on another celestial body. It suggests that future Mars crews may face even more demanding selection and training.

Speakers and sources featured

• Explore Mode narrator: Presents the selection process, historical background, training details, and future outlook.
• Johnny Kim: Quoted explaining that he believes in NASA’s mission to advance the space frontier and develop technologies that benefit people.
• NASA: Cited as the source of astronaut requirements and training information.
• Unidentified voice in a training clip: Briefly heard giving instructions related to bracing or strengthening the body against G-forces.
• People mentioned but not presented as speakers: Yuri Gagarin, the original Mercury astronauts, Christina Koch, and Jessica Meir.