125-415: NASA Astronaut Group 8 was a group of 35 astronauts announced on January 16, 1978. It was the first NASA selection since Group 6 in 1967, and was the largest group to that date. The class was the first to include female and minority astronauts; of the 35 selected, six were women, one of them being Jewish American , three were African American , and one was Asian American . Due to the long delay between
250-520: A human mission to Mars . Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP) , has been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On 2 November 2017, scientists reported that significant changes in
375-463: A spacecraft . Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists . "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or the Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from
500-709: A "spacewalk"), on 18 March 1965, on the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission. This was followed two and a half months later by astronaut Ed White who made the first American EVA on NASA's Gemini 4 mission. The first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Apollo 8 , included American William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968. The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from other " socialist " (i.e. Warsaw Pact and other Soviet-allied) countries to fly on its missions, with
625-405: A NASA astronaut selection board. On July 8, 1976, NASA issued a call for applications for at least 15 pilot candidates and 15 mission specialist candidates. For the first time, new selections would be considered astronaut candidates rather than fully-fledged astronauts until they finished training and evaluation, which was expected to take two years. Pilot candidate applicants had to have at least
750-431: A bachelor's degree in engineering, a physical science or mathematics from an accredited institution, although an advanced degree was desirable, and at least 1,000 hours of pilot flying time, preferably in high performance jet aircraft, but 2,000 hours was desirable. They had to pass a NASA Class 1 physical examination, and a height between 64 and 76 inches (160 and 190 cm) was desirable. For mission specialist candidates,
875-487: A consequence of the First World War, this number rose to 900,000. Between the wars , the workforce experienced fluctuations between 500 and 600,000. The one million mark was surpassed in the early 1940s, with a record 3.3 million people recorded as part of the federal civil service by 1945. This figure then receded to 2.1 million by October 1946. In the early 19th century, positions in the federal government were held at
1000-535: A crewed spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries, e.g. the Soviet-led Interkosmos program. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (French: spationaute ) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word spatium for "space";
1125-551: A medically healthy environment for astronauts. United States federal civil service The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce (i.e., non-elected and non-military public sector employees) of the United States federal government 's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871 ( 5 U.S.C. § 2101 ). U.S. state and local government entities often have comparable civil service systems that are modeled on
1250-533: A report on the state of equal opportunity in NASA on their own time, and submitted it directly to Fletcher. The report concluded: NASA has demonstrated to the world that it has limitless imagination, vision, capability, courage and faith, limitless persistence and infinite space potential. It made the United States a winner in space and improved the quality of life for all people. ... However, in spite of sincere efforts on
1375-615: A researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who flew on STS-9 in 1983. In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler and the first journalist in space for Tokyo Broadcasting System , a visit to Mir as part of an estimated $ 12 million (USD) deal with a Japanese TV station, although at the time, the term used to refer to Akiyama was "Research Cosmonaut". Akiyama suffered severe space sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity. The first self-funded space tourist
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#17328812374891500-402: A rotating chair to test susceptibility to motion sickness, on a treadmill to measure heart rate, and with a Personal Rescue Enclosure to test for claustrophobia . The psychiatric process was not free of gender bias; one consultant was later found to have rejected 40 percent of female applicants in the 1978, 1980, 1984 and 1985 selections but only 7 percent of male ones. Applicants were put up at
1625-480: A time when the United States federal civil service averages were 20 and 34 percent respectively. Although NASA employed 4,432 women, only 310 were in science and engineering, of which just four were in the top grades, counting Harris. Although it could be argued that women and minorities were under-represented in the aerospace engineering industry as a whole, NASA was no better at recruiting women as lawyers than as scientists, and while minorities were well represented in
1750-573: Is John Glenn , one of the Mercury 7 , who was 77 when he flew on STS-95 . The longest time spent in space was by Russian Valeri Polyakov , who spent 438 days there. As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz . The farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (249,205 mi), when Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert , and Fred Haise went around
1875-845: Is also where the Shuttle Training Aircraft is maintained and developed, although most flights of the aircraft are conducted from Edwards Air Force Base . Astronauts in training must learn how to control and fly the Space Shuttle; further, it is vital that they are familiar with the International Space Station so they know what they must do when they get there. The master's degree requirement can also be met by: Mission Specialist Educators , or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004; as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba , Richard R. Arnold , and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger . Barbara Morgan , selected as back-up teacher to Christa McAuliffe in 1985,
2000-436: Is anticipated that remote guided ultrasound will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations, where access to a trained physician is often rare. A 2006 Space Shuttle experiment found that Salmonella typhimurium , a bacterium that can cause food poisoning , became more virulent when cultivated in space. More recently, in 2017, bacteria were found to be more resistant to antibiotics and to thrive in
2125-528: Is at least 15.95% of base salary in all parts of the United States. The following salary ranges represent the lowest and highest possible amounts a person can earn in base salary, without earning overtime pay or receiving a merit-based bonus. Actual salary ranges differ adjusted for increased locality pay. As of March 2022 , however, all base salaries lie within the parameters of the following ranges: Nineteen percent of federal employees earned salaries of $ 100,000 or more in 2009. The average federal worker's pay
2250-512: Is called an astronaut . The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his 1930 short story "The Death's Head Meteor". The word itself had been known earlier; for example, in Percy Greg 's 1880 book Across the Zodiac , "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de l'infini (1925) by J.-H. Rosny aîné , the word astronautique ( astronautics )
2375-635: Is considered to be the first Educator astronaut by the media, but she trained as a mission specialist. The Educator Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s. Astronauts are susceptible to a variety of health risks including decompression sickness , barotrauma , immunodeficiencies , loss of bone and muscle , loss of eyesight , orthostatic intolerance , sleep disturbances , and radiation injury. A variety of large scale medical studies are being conducted in space via
2500-455: Is strictly defined as the navigation of outer space within the local star system , i.e. Solar System . The phrase tàikōng rén ( 太空人 , "spaceman") is often used in Hong Kong and Taiwan . The term taikonaut is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China . The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, and
2625-695: The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . In 1989, she took a leave of absence from the Astronaut Office to raise her family. She returned in January 1996, and was Chief of the Space Station branch from 1996 to 2002. From January 2011 until August 2013, she served as an ISS Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) in the Mission Control Center. She retired from NASA on April 28, 2017. Gardner returned to
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#17328812374892750-639: The Congressional Black Caucus and NAACP were contacted. Advertisements were placed in minority magazines with minority readership like Ebony , Black Enterprise , Essence and Jet . Nichelle Nichols , an African-American actor best known for the television series Star Trek was hired to do spot advertising. Her publicity firm, Women in Motion, was paid $ 49,000 ($ equivalent to $ 262,000 in 2023). She met with members of community organizations, colleges and institutions to familiarize them with
2875-497: The Hatch Act of 1939 , civil servants are not allowed to engage in political activities while performing their duties. In some cases, an outgoing administration will give its political appointees positions with civil service protection in order to prevent them from being fired by the new administration; this is called "burrowing" in civil service jargon. Public support in the United States for civil service reform strengthened following
3000-557: The International Space Station : The first NASA astronauts were selected for training in 1959. Early in the space program, military jet test piloting and engineering training were often cited as prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, although neither John Glenn nor Scott Carpenter (of the Mercury Seven ) had any university degree, in engineering or any other discipline at the time of their selection. Selection
3125-663: The Malay term angkasawan (deriving from angkasa meaning 'space') was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program (note its similarity with the Indonesian term antariksawan ). Plans of the Indian Space Research Organisation to launch its crewed Gaganyaan spacecraft have spurred at times public discussion if another term than astronaut should be used for the crew members, suggesting vyomanaut (from
3250-809: The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to address these issues. Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study in which astronauts (including former ISS commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka ) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. This study's techniques are now being applied to cover professional and Olympic sports injuries as well as ultrasound performed by non-expert operators in medical and high school students. It
3375-812: The Office of Management and Budget , the Council of Economic Advisers , the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative , the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Office of Science and Technology Policy . Independent agencies include the United States Postal Service (USPS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
3500-658: The Sanskrit word vyoman meaning 'sky' or 'space') or gagannaut (from the Sanskrit word gagan for 'sky'). In Finland , the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra , a Finnish American , has sometimes been referred to as sisunautti , from the Finnish word sisu . Across Germanic languages, the word for "astronaut" typically translates to "space traveler", as it does with German's Raumfahrer , Dutch's ruimtevaarder , Swedish's rymdfarare , and Norwegian's romfarer . As of 2021 in
3625-596: The Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. On 30 May 2020, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first astronauts to launch on a private crewed spacecraft, Crew Dragon . The youngest person to reach space is Oliver Daemen , who was 18 years and 11 months old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-16 . Daemen, who was a commercial passenger aboard the New Shepard , broke the record of Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov , who
3750-716: The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . These four, plus Shannon Lucid , received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor , giving this astronaut class five total recipients of this top NASA award. This is second only to the New Nine class of 1962, which received seven. The careers of the TFNGs would span the entire Space Shuttle Program. They reshaped the image of the American astronaut into one that more closely resembled
3875-568: The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster : He left JSC in October 1989 to become the head of Space Shuttle Operations at KSC. He subsequently became the deputy program manager for the Space Shuttle, and Director of Space Shuttle Operations. He left NASA in 1996. In 1993 he left JSC and became the Space Shuttle Program Manager, Launch Integration, at KSC. He was Deputy Director for Launch and Payload Processing there from 1997 to 2000, and
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4000-414: The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School , Jane Holley, in 1974. Of the mission specialist applicants, 5,680 were regarded as qualified. Of these, 161 were military, six of whom were minorities and three of whom were women. The other 5,519 were civilians. Of these, 332 were minorities and 1,248 were women. The selection board reduced the number of applicants to 208, of which 80 were pilot applicants and 128 were
4125-832: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In addition, there are government-owned corporations such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC; more commonly known as Amtrak ). As of March 2022 , there are 392 federal agencies including 9 executive offices , 15 executive departments, 259 executive department sub-agencies and bureaus, 66 independent agencies, 42 boards, commissions, and committees, 11 quasi-official agencies. As of January 2009 , about 2 million civilian workers were employed by
4250-562: The United States Civil Service Commission to rule Harris's dismissal as an unlawful reprisal. NASA's legal counsel advised Fletcher to settle. The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations wanted for an explanation, and Senator William Proxmire grilled McConnell. Aides urged Fletcher to appear before the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences . Fletcher demurred; he
4375-498: The planet Mars , may substantially damage the gastrointestinal tissues of astronauts. The studies support earlier work that found such journeys could significantly damage the brains of astronauts, and age them prematurely. Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five Enterobacter bugandensis bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue assuring
4500-607: The southern United States . Eight of them had created equal employment/affirmative action offices, but the staff of six of them was entirely white. In 1971, the Administrator of NASA , James C. Fletcher , appointed Ruth Bates Harris, an African-American, as NASA's Director of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), but before she commenced work on 4 October 1971, Fletcher demoted her to deputy director, and reduced her responsibility to dealing with contractors only. In 1973, 5.6 percent of NASA staff were minorities, and 18 percent were women at
4625-530: The " Vomit Comet ," the nickname given to a pair of modified KC-135s (retired in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and replaced in 2005 with a C-9 ) which perform parabolic flights. Astronauts are also required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft. This is mostly done in T-38 jet aircraft out of Ellington Field , due to its proximity to the Johnson Space Center . Ellington Field
4750-532: The 100 kilometers (54 nautical miles) line, qualifying him by the international definition of spaceflight. Walker had joined the US Army Air Force but was not a member during his flight. The first people in space who had never been a member of any country's armed forces were both Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard Voskhod 1 . The first non-governmental space traveler was Byron K. Lichtenberg ,
4875-607: The 1881 assassination of President James Garfield . The United States Civil Service Commission was created by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act , which was passed into law on January 16, 1883. The commission was created to administer the civil service of the United States federal government . The law required federal government employees to be selected through competitive exams and basis of merit. It also prevented elected officials and political appointees from firing civil servants, removing civil servants from
5000-573: The 35 successful applicants and notified them of their selection, and asked them to confirm that they still wanted the job. Three were outside the United States; Kathy Sullivan was in Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada, working on her PhD ; Steven Hawley was doing post-doctoral research in Chile, and David Walker was serving on the aircraft carrier USS America in the Mediterranean Sea. The names of
5125-418: The 35 were then publicly released. He was Chief of the Astronaut Office from April 1987 to September 1992, and retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy on October 1, 1992. He was Acting Chief of the Astronaut Office from May 1989 to March 1990, and retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy on August 1, 1992. He retired from NASA on July 11, 1994, and from the U.S. Navy on August 1, 1994. He retired from NASA and
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5250-699: The Administration of George W. Bush , which raised the salary cap for senior GS employees slightly above the $ 150,000 threshold. Civil service employees work in one of the 15 executive departments or one of the independent agencies . In addition, a number of staff organizations are grouped into the Executive Office of the President , including the White House staff, the National Security Council ,
5375-646: The Air Force on February 28, 1995, and from the Astronaut Office on March 1, 1995, to assume the full-time position of deputy director for operations development, Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance Office at the Johnson Space Center. In September 1996, he transferred to the Aircraft Operations Division as a research pilot, chief of aviation safety and deputy division chief. He retired from NASA on May 31, 2011 On his second mission, he died in
5500-741: The Associate Director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California but returned to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992 as Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations, and returned to astronaut flight status in February 1996. He was Director, Flight Crew Operations from October 2001 to November 2002, First Chief Astronaut for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center from 2003 to 2004, and Director of
5625-646: The Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate from 2002 to 2008. He retired from NASA in May 2008. Hoffman retired from the Astronaut Corps in 1997 to become NASA's European representative in Paris in 2008. He left NASA in August 2001 to become a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Lucid was NASA's Chief Scientist from February 2002 until September 2003, when she returned to
5750-471: The Astronaut Office. She retired from NASA in January 2012. On his second mission, he died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster : Astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek ἄστρον ( astron ), meaning 'star', and ναύτης ( nautes ), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard
5875-707: The Deputy Program Manager of the Space Shuttle Program from 2000 to 2006. He retired NASA and from the USAF as a colonel in 2006. He left NASA and the Navy on April 15, 1996. He was the Deputy Manager, Operations Integration, National Space Transportation System Program Office at JSC from September 1982 until July 1983, Deputy Chief of the Aircraft Operations Division at JSC from July 1985 toAugust 1986, and Chief of
6000-457: The Earth was John Glenn , aboard Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride , during Space Shuttle Challenger 's mission STS-7 , on 18 June 1983. In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space aboard STS-47 . Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA), (commonly called
6125-524: The European Space Agency envisioned recruiting an astronaut with a physical disability, a category they called "parastronauts", with the intention but not guarantee of spaceflight. The categories of disability considered for the program were individuals with lower limb deficiency (either through amputation or congenital), leg length difference, or a short stature (less than 130 centimetres or 4 feet 3 inches). On 23 November 2022, John McFall
6250-572: The JSC Personnel Office, and Joseph D. Atkinson and Jose R. Perez from the JSC Equal Opportunity Programs Office was created to publicize the recruitment effort. NASA centers and NASA contractors were canvassed for prospective applicants, minority and women's professional organizations were contacted, and graduated schools and government agencies were asked to notify their students and employees. Political organizations like
6375-677: The JSC for interviews and medical tests. The latter were conducted under the supervision of Sam L. Pool, the chief of the Medical services Division at JSC. On April 1, 1977, twenty volunteers were run through the medical selection to work out the procedures and logistics of it. The tests involved 24 procedures, including a general examination by a flight surgeon. The candidate's medical history was examined, and psychological, psychiatric, ophthalmological, neurological, dental, musculoskeletal and eye, nose and throat examinations were conducted. Tests were conducted using
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#17328812374896500-540: The Kings Inn Ramada in Clear Lake, Texas , where an evening reception and pre-interview briefing was held. The medical tests eliminated 56 applicants, and three more indicated that they did not wish to proceed. That left 149 applicants (74 pilots and 75 mission specialists) who were listed. From this group, the selection board nominated 20 pilot and 20 mission specialist astronaut candidates. However, in November 1977, NASA Administrator Robert A. Frosch noted that NASA had enough pilot astronauts, and instructed Abbey to reduce
6625-498: The Mission Support Branch of the Astronaut Office from September 1986 to December 1988. He retired from NASA and the US Navy with the rank of captain in March 1990. He retired from NASA and the Air Force in July 1993. He served as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office from March 1989 until May 1992. He retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and NASA on September 1, 1992. He was scheduled to fly again in May 1986 on STS-61-G , but he announced his intention to resign in September 1985, and
6750-411: The Moon during the Apollo 13 emergency. The first civilian in space was Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 (she also became the first woman in space on that mission). Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force, which did not accept female pilots at that time. A month later, Joseph Albert Walker became the first American civilian in space when his X-15 Flight 90 crossed
6875-451: The Navy in 1986, and was assigned to the U.S. Space Command at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado , where he was Deputy Chief of the Space Control Operations Division. He was promoted to captain in June 1989, became Space Command's Deputy Director for Space Control at Peterson Air Force Base . He retired from the Navy in October 1990 Hart was offered a second space flight on STS-61-A , but turned it down. He
7000-682: The Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek κόσμος ). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin "tàikōng" ( 太空 ), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China, the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and their foreign counterparts are all officially called hángtiānyuán ( 航天员 , meaning "heaven navigator" or literally " heaven-sailing staff"). Since 1961, 600 astronauts have flown in space. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by
7125-403: The Russian kosmonavt, such as the Polish : kosmonauta (although Poles also used astronauta , and the two words are considered synonyms). Coinage of the term космонавт has been credited to Soviet aeronautics (or " cosmonautics ") pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974). The first cosmonaut was Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin , also the first person in space. He was part of
7250-471: The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). OPM primarily provides management guidance to the various agencies of the executive branch and issues regulations that control federal human resources. FLRA oversees the rights of federal employees to form collective bargaining units (unions) and to engage in collective bargaining with agencies. MSPB conducts studies of
7375-457: The U.S. Navy on July 15, 1992. He was Chief of the Astronaut Office from December 1992 to September 1994. He retired from the U.S. Navy in June 1996, and from NASA and November 1996. Gregory served at NASA Headquarters as Associate Administrator for the Office of Safety and MissionAssurance from 1992 to 2001, as Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight from 2001 to 2002, and as NASA Deputy Administrator from 2002 to 2005, becoming
7500-459: The United States government civil service has evolved into a complex set of pay systems that include principally the General Schedule (GS) for white-collar employees, Federal Wage System (FWS) for blue-collar employees, Senior Executive System (SES) for Executive-level employees, Foreign Service Schedule (FS) for members of the Foreign Service and more than twelve alternate pay systems that are referred to as alternate or experimental pay systems such as
7625-558: The United States, astronaut status is conferred on a person depending on the authorizing agency: On July 20, 2021, the FAA issued an order redefining the eligibility criteria to be an astronaut in response to the private suborbital spaceflights of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson . The new criteria states that one must have "[d]emonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety" to qualify as an astronaut. This new definition excludes Bezos and Branson. The first human in space
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#17328812374897750-587: The academic degree could also be in the biological sciences, only a NASA class 2 physical was required, no pilot experience was necessary, and the minimum desirable height was 60 inches (150 cm). The main difference between the two physical classes was that glasses were acceptable for the class 2 physical, if eyesight was 20/20 when corrected. Military personnel would have to forward applications through their service departments. They would be seconded to NASA, and would receive their usual pay and allowances. Civilians astronaut candidates could apply directly. Their pay
7875-411: The agency. A comprehensive recruitment plan for pilots was drawn up in 1974, and for mission specialists the following year, but specific provisions to recruit women and minorities were not completed until early 1976. The Director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Christopher C. Kraft Jr. , created an Astronaut Selection Board on March 12, 1976, and it held its first meeting on March 24. The makeup of
8000-410: The board was: By this time it had been nearly ten years since NASA had last conducted an astronaut selection process in June 1967; NASA Astronaut Group 7 had transferred from the United States Air Force 's Manned Orbiting Laboratory in June 1969 without one. The presence of Huntoon, a white woman, and Atkinson, a black man, meant that this was the first time people other than white men had served on
8125-467: The changes are designed to strengthen merit-system principles in the civil service and improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the federal government. However, in August 2018, after reviewing the executive orders in detail, U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily struck down most of the executive orders, ruling that they were an attempt to weaken federal labor unions representing federal employees. Judge Jackson's ruling
8250-527: The diversity of American society, and opened the doors for others that would follow. The enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 gave teeth to the promise of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to address the persistent and entrenched employment discrimination against women, African Americans and other minority groups in American society. Specifically, it empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to take enforcement action against individuals, employers, and labor unions that violated
8375-461: The door open to their prohibition through statute or executive order . On September 2, 1976, President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11935, requiring citizenship for Federal employment, thereby effectively nullifying the Supreme Court's ruling. Some applications were received from non-citizens. On December 7, 1976, NASA's Director of Personnel, Carl Grant, advised the selection board that any applications accepted from non-citizens should be on
8500-448: The early 1970s women received 40 percent of the PhDs awarded in biology , they represented just 4 percent of those in engineering; the 10 percent mark was not reached until the 1990s, by which time African Americans were awarded 2 percent of doctorates in all fields of science and engineering. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was no paragon of diversity in 1972. Most of its twelve major facilities were located in
8625-626: The employment provisions of the 1964 Act, and expanded the jurisdiction of the commission to deal with them. It also extended the scope of affirmative action , mandating that all executive branch agencies also comply with the act. Supporters of the legislation hoped that it would spur social change, but culture was not so easily changed. Women in science and engineering still found the culture off-putting, and while colleges dramatically increased their enrollment of women in these fields, many women found themselves in classrooms mostly filled with men, some of whom were openly hostile to their presence. Although in
8750-405: The federal civil service and mainly hears the appeals of federal employees who are disciplined or otherwise separated from their positions. This act was an effort to replace incompetent officials. In May 2018, President Donald Trump signed three executive orders intended to crack down on unions that represent federal employees and to make it easier to fire federal workers. It was claimed that
8875-437: The federal civil service. The Federal Wage System or Wage Grade (WG) schedule includes most federal blue-collar workers. As of September 2004 , 71% of federal civilian employees were paid under the GS; the remaining 29% were paid under other systems such as the Federal Wage System for federal blue-collar civilian employees, the Senior Executive Service and the Executive Schedule for high-ranking federal employees , and
9000-487: The federal government; excluding, the postal service and defense. The federal government is the nation's single largest employer. Although most federal agencies are based in the Washington, D.C. region, only about 16% (or about 288,000) of the federal government workforce is employed in this region. The federal service employed approximately 300 individuals by 1789. By the end of the 19th century, it had reached 208,000. As
9125-577: The federal pay system. The common goal among all pay systems is to provide equitable salaries to all involved workers regardless of system, group or classification. This is referred to as pay equity or "equal pay for equal work". Select careers in high demand may be subject to a special rate table, which can pay above the standard GS tables. These careers include certain engineering disciplines and patent examiners. The General Schedule (GS) includes white collar workers at levels 1 through 15, most professional, technical, administrative, and clerical positions in
9250-637: The first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37 . Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of Hispanic and black African descent to fly in space, and in 1983, Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly into space. In April 1985, Taylor Wang became the first ethnic Chinese person in space. The first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry (France), in 1985. In 1985, Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud became
9375-627: The first African-American to hold this position. He resigned from NASA in October 2005 He flew in space three times: In May 1989, he returned to the Navy as Director of the Navy Space Systems Division, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations . He retired from active duty on June 1, 1990. McBride was scheduled to fly again as commander of STS-61-E in March 1986, but the mission was cancelled in
9500-437: The first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and thus became the first "American cosmonaut". In Chinese, the term Yǔ háng yuán ( 宇航员 , "cosmos navigating personnel") is used for astronauts and cosmonauts in general, while hángtiān yuán ( 航天员 , "navigating celestial-heaven personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. Here, hángtiān ( 航天 , literally "heaven-navigating", or spaceflight )
9625-548: The first Arab Muslim astronaut in space. In 1988, Abdul Ahad Mohmand became the first Afghan to reach space, spending nine days aboard the Mir space station. With the increase of seats on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. began taking international astronauts. In 1983, Ulf Merbold of West Germany became the first non-US citizen to fly in a US spacecraft. In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first of eight Canadian astronauts to fly in space (through 2010). In 1985, Rodolfo Neri Vela became
9750-418: The first Mexican-born person in space. In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space. In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space, as a paying spaceflight participant. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli to fly in space, although he died during a re-entry accident . On 15 October 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on
9875-528: The first experimental system China Lake Demonstration Project. The current system began as the Classification Act of 1923 and was refined into law with the Classification Act of 1949. These acts that provide the foundation of the current system have been amended through executive orders and through published amendments in the Federal Register that sets for approved changes in the regulatory structure of
10000-698: The first person in space twice. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5-man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks . As of 2024 , the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Oleg Kononenko , who has spent over 1100 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman, at 675 days. In 1959, when both the United States and Soviet Union were planning, but had yet to launch humans into space, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his Deputy Administrator, Hugh Dryden , discussed whether spacecraft crew members should be called astronauts or cosmonauts . Dryden preferred "cosmonaut", on
10125-448: The first six Soviet citizens, with German Titov , Yevgeny Khrunov , Andriyan Nikolayev , Pavel Popovich , and Grigoriy Nelyubov , who were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961. Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut and the first and youngest woman to have flown in space with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 in 1963. On 14 March 1995, Norman Thagard became
10250-434: The grounds that flights would occur in and to the broader cosmos , while the "astro" prefix suggested flight specifically to the stars . Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred "astronaut", which survived by common usage as the preferred American term. When the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to "cosmonaut". A professional space traveler
10375-583: The influences of political patronage and partisan behavior. However, the law did not apply to state and municipal governments. Effective January 1, 1978, the commission was renamed the Office of Personnel Management under the provisions of Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1978 (43 F.R. 36037, 92 Stat. 3783) and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 . This act abolished the United States Civil Service Commission and created
10500-1011: The last Apollo lunar mission in 1972 and the first flight of the Space Shuttle in 1981, few astronauts from the older groups remained, and they were outnumbered by the newcomers, who became known as the Thirty-Five New Guys (TFNG). Since then, a new group of candidates has been selected roughly every two years. In Astronaut Group 8, two different kinds of astronaut were selected: pilots and mission specialists . The group consisted of 15 pilots, all test pilots , and 20 mission specialists. NASA stopped sending non-pilots for one year of pilot training . It also ceased appointing astronauts on selection. Instead, starting with this group, new selections were considered astronaut candidates rather than fully-fledged astronauts until they finished their training. Four members of this group, Dick Scobee , Judith Resnik , Ellison Onizuka , and Ronald McNair , died in
10625-510: The lunar surface, or, in one case, a loop around the Moon . Three of the 24— Jim Lovell , John Young and Eugene Cernan —did so twice. As of 17 November 2016 , under the U.S. definition, 558 people qualify as having reached space, above 50 miles (80 km) altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles (80 km) in altitude, only one, Joseph A. Walker , exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62.1 miles) and he did it two times, becoming
10750-407: The military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut . The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, with some focus on the point where the atmosphere becomes so thin that centrifugal force , rather than aerodynamic force , carries a significant portion of
10875-437: The mission specialist applicants. Of the pilot applicants, 76 were from the military and four were civilians; three of the military applicants were minorities. Of the 128 mission specialist applicants, 45 were from the military, four of whom were minorities and two were women, and 83 were civilians, of whom four were minorities and twelve were women. The 208 applicants were divided into ten groups of about twenty, and called in to
11000-408: The national system to varying degrees. The U.S. civil service is managed by the Office of Personnel Management , which as of December 2011 reported approximately 2.79 million civil servants employed by the federal government, including employees in the departments and agencies run by any of the three branches of government (the executive branch , legislative branch , and judicial branch ) and
11125-453: The near-weightlessness of space. Microorganisms have been observed to survive the vacuum of outer space. On 31 December 2012, a NASA -supported study reported that human spaceflight may harm the brain and accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease . In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to space exploration , including
11250-419: The need for a plan to be drawn up defining the schedule and requirements for crewing the Space Shuttle , but it was not expected to fly before 1978, and NASA already had sufficient astronauts to carry out scheduled missions and the proposed early Space Shuttle flights too, so no new astronauts would be required before 1982. Assuming twenty months between a call for applications and an individual's first flight, it
11375-520: The notable exceptions of France and Austria participating in Soyuz TM-7 and Soyuz TM-13 , respectively. An example is Czechoslovak Vladimír Remek , the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States , who flew to space in 1978 on a Soyuz-U rocket. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space. He was launched aboard Soyuz T-11 , on 2 April 1984. On 23 July 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became
11500-762: The numbers to 15. All five of those dropped at the last minute would later be selected with NASA Astronaut Group 9 in 1980. In all, six of finalists who were passed over in 1978 would later qualify as pilot astronaut candidates in 1980: John Blaha , Roy Bridges , Guy Gardner , Ronald Grabe , Bryan O'Connor , and Richard Richards as pilots, and six as mission specialists: James Bagian , Bonnie Dunbar , Bill Fisher , John Lounge , Jerry Ross and Robert Springer . Another unsuccessful finalist, John Casper , would be selected with NASA Astronaut Group 10 in 1984. Two others who were not selected would eventually fly in space as payload specialists: Millie Hughes-Fulford and Byron Lichtenberg . On January 16, 1978, Abbey contacted
11625-504: The office's workforce. Federal employee organizations and Congressional Democrats sought to overturn the order via lawsuits or bills. House Democrats warned in a letter that "The executive order could precipitate a mass exodus from the federal government at the end of every presidential administration, leaving federal agencies without deep institutional knowledge, expertise, experience, and the ability to develop and implement long-term policy strategies." Observers predicted that Trump could use
11750-442: The over 600,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service . There are three categories of U.S. federal employees: A hiring authority is the law, executive order, regulation that allows an agency to hire a person into the federal civil service. In fiscal year 2014, there were 105 hiring authorities in use. The following were the top 20 hiring authorities used that year, which accounted for 91% of new appointments: The pay system of
11875-430: The part of some NASA management and employees, human rights in NASA have not even gotten off the ground. In fact, Equal Opportunity is a sham in NASA. Fletcher fired Harris, transferred Hogan, and gave Lynn a stern warning. To the surprise of Fletcher and Low, Harris's firing generated a storm of negative coverage in the media. Seventy NASA employees protested the decision, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers petitioned
12000-645: The pay schedules for the United States Postal Service and the Foreign Service . In addition, some federal agencies—such as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission , the Federal Reserve System , and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation —have their own unique pay schedules. All federal employees in the GS system receive a base pay that is adjusted for locality. Locality pay varies, but
12125-497: The pilot applicants as qualified. Of these, 147 were military and 512 were civilians; ten were minorities and eight were women. From these, 80 were selected for interviews, of whom 76 were military and four were civilians; three were minorities but there were no women. The first woman to graduate from the United States Naval Test Pilot School , Beth Hubert, did not do so until 1985, and the first to graduate from
12250-542: The pleasure of the president—a person could be fired at any time. The spoils system meant that jobs were used to support the American political parties, though this was gradually changed by the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and subsequent laws. By 1909, almost two-thirds of the U.S. federal workforce was appointed based on merit, that is, qualifications measured by tests. Certain senior civil service positions, including some heads of diplomatic missions and executive agencies, are filled by political appointees. Under
12375-564: The position and structure of the brain have been found in astronauts who have taken trips in space , based on MRI studies . Astronauts who took longer space trips were associated with greater brain changes. Being in space can be physiologically deconditioning on the body. It can affect the otolith organs and adaptive capabilities of the central nervous system . Zero gravity and cosmic rays can cause many implications for astronauts. In October 2018, NASA -funded researchers found that lengthy journeys into outer space , including travel to
12500-556: The position until 1992. Great changes would occur on her watch. Harris noted that one issue that came up constantly was that of when the all-white, all-male NASA Astronaut Corps would recruit its first woman or a minority astronaut . In a July 19, 1972, memorandum to Ted Groo, the Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, she urged that this be rectified as a matter of urgency. NASA's directors agreed in September 1972 on
12625-449: The ranks of NASA's janitors (69 percent), it employed no women to perform this work. The Kennedy Space Center had 43 grades of secretaries so women could be promoted without reaching management levels. Harris soon proved a feisty and forceful presence who was unafraid to ask uncomfortable questions. After reading a newspaper report that Wernher von Braun had used slave labor to build his rockets during World War II, she asked him if it
12750-534: The requirements for Space Shuttle astronaut candidates. Unlike previous calls for applications, the 1976 one did not specify a requirement for citizenship of the United States . This was because on June 1, 1976, the Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Hampton v. Mow Sun Wong that the Civil Service Commission could not issue regulations prohibiting the employment of non-citizens. It however, left
12875-486: The same rules as political appointees. The new description could be applied to thousands of nonpartisan experts such as scientists, who give advice to the political appointees who run their departments. Heads of all federal agencies were ordered to report by January 19, 2021, a list of positions that could be reclassified as Schedule F. The Office of Management and Budget submitted a list in November that included 88 percent of
13000-576: The scientist astronauts selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4 in 1965 and NASA Astronaut Group 6 in 1967. The inclusion of a space toilet in the Space Shuttle design permitted a degree of privacy impossible in the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. This encouraged NASA management to believe that women could fly in space without offending contemporary American social and cultural mores regarding sexuality and hygiene, which might have caused embarrassment to
13125-687: The selection board to evaluate this many applications, so they were pre-screened to identify the most promising ones. The first pass was to eliminate those that did not meet the minimum requirements. This eliminated over 2,000 applications. The selection board then began processing the remaining 5,680. A point system was then used to rank candidates. For pilots, this took account of hours flown, test pilot experience, types and numbers of different aircraft flown, and grade point average for undergraduate and graduate degrees. For mission specialists, points were awarded for academic degrees, grade point averages, and years of experience. The selection board assessed 649 of
13250-579: The term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps . By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its predecessor, the Soviet space program ) is called a cosmonaut in English texts. The word is an Anglicization of kosmonavt (Russian: космонавт Russian pronunciation: [kəsmɐˈnaft] ). Other countries of the former Eastern Bloc use variations of
13375-599: The term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese People's Daily since the advent of the Chinese space program. The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih ( 趙裡昱 ) from Malaysia used it in newsgroups . For its 2022 Astronaut Group ,
13500-399: The understanding that they would take up US citizenship before the end of the two-year training and evaluation period. Between July 1976 and June 1977, the JSC received 24,618 inquiries. Of these 20,440 requested and were sent application packages. Eventually, the total number of applications was 8,079. Most were received in the final two weeks before the deadline date. It was not possible for
13625-500: The wake of the January 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . On July 30, 1987, he was assigned to NASA Headquarters to serve as Assistant Administrator for Congressional Relations. He held this post from September 1987 until March 1989. He was named as commander of the STS-35 (ASTRO-1) mission scheduled for March 1990, but he retired from NASA and the Navy in May 1989 before it was flown. He flew in space four times: Nagel retired from
13750-691: The weight of the flight object. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed the Kármán line , at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi). In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometres (50 mi) are awarded astronaut wings . As of 17 November 2016 , 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km (62 mi) or more in altitude, of whom 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, either to lunar orbit,
13875-537: Was Dennis Tito on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on 28 April 2001. The first person to fly on an entirely privately funded mission was Mike Melvill , piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a suborbital journey, although he was a test pilot employed by Scaled Composites and not an actual paying space tourist. Jared Isaacman was the first person to self-fund a mission to orbit, commanding Inspiration4 in 2021. Nine others have paid Space Adventures to fly to
14000-634: Was $ 71,208 compared with $ 40,331 in the private sector, although under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, most menial or lower paying jobs have been outsourced to private contractors. In 2010, there were 82,034 workers, 3.9% of the federal workforce, making more than $ 150,000 annually, compared to 7,240 in 2005. GS salaries are capped by law so that they do not exceed the salary for Executive Schedule IV positions. The increase in civil servants making more than $ 150,000 resulted mainly from an increase in Executive Schedule salary approved during
14125-452: Was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2 . Titov remains the youngest human to reach orbit ; he rounded the planet 17 times. Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness and the first person to sleep in space, twice. The oldest person to reach space is William Shatner , who was 90 years old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-18 . The oldest person to reach orbit
14250-443: Was Soviet Yuri Gagarin , who was launched on 12 April 1961, aboard Vostok 1 and orbited around the Earth for 108 minutes. The first woman in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova , who launched on 16 June 1963, aboard Vostok 6 and orbited Earth for almost three days. Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on 5 May 1961, on a 15-minute sub-orbital flight aboard Freedom 7 . The first American to orbit
14375-465: Was a Mormon , and his church practised racial exclusion until 1978 , so he sent the Jewish Low in his place in January 1974. Low urged McConnell to hire Harriet G. Jenkins as his deputy, and when he resisted, Low had Fletcher hire her. In August 1974, Harris was re-hired, but in a new role in community outreach and public relations, and she left NASA in 1976. Jenkins replaced McConnell, and would hold down
14500-488: Was estimated NASA would not need to initiate an astronaut recruitment process before 1980. Planning proceeded on the make up of a Space Shuttle crew. By 1972, five roles were envisaged: Although the payload specialist and passengers would not be astronauts, it was expected that they would have to undergo some astronaut training for safety purposes. An early decision was that mission specialist astronauts would not be required to undergo pilot training, which had been required of
14625-594: Was initially limited to military pilots. The earliest astronauts for both the US and the USSR tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots. Once selected, NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extravehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory . Astronauts-in-training (astronaut candidates) may also experience short periods of weightlessness ( microgravity ) in an aircraft called
14750-627: Was only on a leave of absence from Bell Telephone Laboratories , and with the breakup of the Bell System he was asked to return. He left NASA on June 15, 1984, and retired from the Air National Guard in 1990. He was Technical Assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations from 1984 to 1985, and Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1987 to 1990. He left the Astronaut Office in June 1990 to become
14875-507: Was replaced by Norman Thagard . Fabian left NASA on January 1, 1986, and returned to the USAF as the Director of Space in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Plans and Operations. He retired from the USAF as a colonel in June 1987. She was assigned as a mission specialist on the STS-61-H that was scheduled to fly 1986, but the mission was cancelled in the aftermath of
15000-590: Was reversed by the DC Circuit on jurisdiction grounds, saying the unions should first have complained to the Federal Labor Relations Authority . In October 2020, Trump signed an executive order that created a new category of federal employees, Schedule F , which included all career civil servants whose job includes "policymaking". Such employees would no longer be covered by civil service protections against arbitrary dismissal, but would be subject to
15125-462: Was selected to be the first ESA parastronaut. With the rise of space tourism , NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term " spaceflight participant " to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. While no nation other than Russia (and previously the Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched
15250-566: Was set at Federal government General Schedule grades 7 to 15, depending on achievements and academic experience, with salaries ranging from around $ 11,000 to $ 34,000 (equivalent to $ 59,000 to $ 182,000 in 2023). Minorities and women were encouraged to apply. The deadline for applications was June 30, 1977, with training expected to commence on July 1, 1978. NASA management were certain that there were highly qualified women and minorities out there, but they needed to persuade them to apply. A special team consisting of Mary Wilmarth and Baley Davis from
15375-500: Was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950, and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps . The European Space Agency similarly uses
15500-441: Was true. She wanted her original job back, and civil service rules required that affirmative action directors report directly to the administrators of government agencies. To fill the position, NASA's deputy administrator, George Low , appointed Dudley McConnell, NASA's most senior African-American engineer to the position, with Harris as one of his deputies. Harris, Samuel Lynn (a former Tuskegee airman ) and Joseph M. Hogan prepared
15625-475: Was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied in 1784 to balloonists . An early use of "astronaut" in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell 's poem "The Astronaut", appearing in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society . The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community
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