NASA Is Picking Older Astronauts Who Leave Earlier
Analysis of age as a factor in NASA astronaut selection and career landmarks, PLoS One
“NASA’s periodic selection of astronauts is a highly selective process accepting applications from the general population, wherein the mechanics of selection are not made public. This research was an effort to determine if biases (specifically age) exist in the process and, if so, at which points they might manifest … the most striking observation was the loss of age diversity at each stage of selection. Applicants younger or older than approximately 40 years were significantly less likely to receive invitations for interviews and were significantly less likely to be selected as an astronaut. Analysis of the public-source data for all selections since the beginning of the astronaut program revealed significant age trends over time including a gradual increase in selectee age and decreased tenure at NASA after last flight, with average age at retirement steady over the entire history of the astronaut program at approximately 48 years.”
Interesting data. A quick look shows 33% greater chance of being selected to interview if female.
This study reminds me of an unexpected result in a study about why modern media has been skewing younger and younger for a time, lead roles in movies and TV, that sort of stuff. The study disproved the usual reasons one by one (economics, demographics, thinking long term, buying behavior, etc.) Basically as the worship of youth increases, the people, movers and shakers (even older) deciding what to produce simply want to be surrounded more and more by beautiful youth.
Makes me wonder about the people making astronaut selections. Have they gotten older? So indirectly or unconsciously are they favoring what they relate to and respect, people their own age vs. “youngsters”?
The lead astronaut selection guy retired from NASA some time back and now works as a contractor in a pretty similar role. So there could definitely be something to what you say.
I just saw a retired astronaut on tv this morning…did not catch his name. Fox News showing off new Mars Rover design…which looks more like its built for Batman than Mars use…but anyway…he stated that the first Mars astronauts are probably in 5th grade right now….that equals ten years old so let’s give them 40 more years to grow up and get there… that’s close to 2060….. even if you give them 30 years…we are talking 2050.. I’ll most likely be dead. So I really think this 2030s bull just ain’t gonna happen. Even lost faith in Musk with all this smaller design bull.
A mention that caught my attention:
“Interestingly, NASA’s own criminal investigation personnel [OIG] must be 37 years old or younger to apply (see Table 1) despite the lack of an upper age limit for astronauts.”
An interesting lecture on CSPAN History:
Lawrence Samuel talked about American views of aging over the last 50 years, including a cultural shift in the 1960s away from revering elders towards embracing the youth culture.
https://www.c-span.org/vide…
The data show that women have a 33% higher chance of being interviewed. Very interesting data!
That is the hopeful aspect!
If the playing field is not level is that not just another notch in the discrimination pole, a pendulum that keeps swinging from extreme to extreme?
That might be one interpretation.
Another could be that the new discrimination is meant to balance old discrimination or whatever caused women to avoid these types of jobs.
This is the rationale for the much higher selection rate (hundreds of percent higher) for acceptance into Astrophysics PhD programs and Postdoctoral Fellowships that females experience.
If trying to balance the scales, wouldn’t HR naturally interview more women?
The issue is not dissimilar to affirmative action and in that sense is inherently unfair to the immediate generation in favor of long term fairness.
Balancing the scales is one thing, but there are better and worse ways of doing it. Applying different standards or quotas are bad ways, since they can easily backfire (e.g. people treated with less respect because “everyone knows” they “were only hired because…”) I’m not sure if that’s the case here, but this is something to be careful of.
In this case, is it a matter of more women applying, or a greater fraction making it through the initial reviews and into the interview stage? Because having more women applying and subject to the same selection criteria is actually a good way to “balance the scales.” There is nothing discriminatory about recruiting women and underrepresented minorities. Organizations can actively going out and telling people that, despite what they thought, they do have a chance of being picked.
I computed the statistics from the data in the paper. Women were selected at a rate that is 33% higher than the men. I did not normalize for education or other experience. So, one could argue that the women selected were simply more qualified. Of course, one could find out that the women were actually less qualified.
That’s awesome!
“and decreased tenure at NASA after last flight” – maybe they should sign astronauts to a fixed length contract so that they cant just leave after getting their “silver bullet” because the only way we are going to get our monies worth out of them (~$1 million for training and flight), is to make sure that they fly multiple times and work in the program a long time. If all you are going to NASA to be an astronaut for is to fly in space and then return and leave for a higher paying job for the rest of you life, then maybe you probably should not be a public astronaut.
If you are going to have an astronaut fly multiple times you better hire them as an infant, or cut the size of the corps drastically. Missions are few and far between these days.
I used to be too young, now I’m too old.
Wow, thanks for sharing. Let us know what you find!
I expect part of the reason is the shift away from test pilots to scientists. A secondary reason may also be, although I have not seen any data, that even test pilots are getting older because of the increased complexity of aircraft, so this is also increasing the average age.
Since it appears the retirement age has stayed about the same this would of course reduce their tenure at NASA.