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NASA Needs to Preserve Skilled Astronaut Corps In Post-Shuttle Era, Says New Report
"NASA should take steps to ensure that it maintains a highly trained astronaut corps to meet International Space Station (ISS) crew requirements while accounting for unexpected attrition or demands of other missions, says a new report by the National Research Council. NASA's current plans for staffing the U.S. astronaut corps do not provide sufficient flexibility to reliably meet projected ISS mission needs."
NRC Report on NASA's Astronaut Corps Released
Was this study funded by mail code CB at JSC? IMO 60 is still too many given the demands of ISS.
I knew this study was happening. Stunned when I saw the outcome in the paper this morning. Was really hoping that privatizing the astronaut corps would be a recommendation - as this could really alter the whole risk/liability dynamic of human spaceflight. Very surprised to see the exact opposite come out of this.
replied to comment from dbooker
| September 11, 2011 7:25 PM
| Reply
High performance jet trainiers were needed for military ilots to maintain their proficiency flying high performance jets ( a critical skill set for a military pilot) as well as the basic flying skill set for landing Shuttles. Cessna 172 won't preserve the sort of basic flying skills military pilots require. As long as NASA recruits military pilots then you need some amount of T38 or similar jet aircraft to maintain their skills. Perhaps the better solution is to not select military pilots as astronauts at all.
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Are these committee members serious? NASA is only going to be flying 4 astronauts per year and a roster of 61 isn't sufficient? How many astronauts did we have when we were flying 3 or 4 Gemini missions per year?
We had only 150 when we were flying 21 to 28 (3-4 missions x 7 crew) per year on the shuttles or approximately a 7 to 1 ratio. Now when we are only flying 4 per year we need more than a 15 to 1 ratio?
And do you need to be flying T38s? Ok if pilot training is so necessary how about using a Cessna 172? Do you really need a high performance jet trainer? Want to do aerobatics, borrow the Pitts Special from the Air and Space museum.
I hope NASA didn't spend a lot of money on that committee.