Record number of Americans apply to be astronauts

The previous milestone was 8,000 people who applied for the class of 1978.

A pair of NASA astronauts released a capsule loaded with 1.5 tons of trash Friday. Now, the next procedure for more than 18 months will be that NASA’s astronaut-selection board will select from the deposited applications.

United States space agency NASA are being overwhelmed with job applications.

Including the “Original Seven” Mercury astronauts named in 1959, NASA has selected 338 astronauts to date in 21 groups.

“It’s not at all surprising to me that so many Americans from diverse backgrounds want to personally contribute to blazing the trail on our journey to Mars”, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said.

Only eight to 14 candidates will be chosen after all is said and done, which means your chances of becoming an astronaut aren’t so great.

The application window for the 2017 class opened in December 2015 and closed on Thursday.

Now begins an 18-month process of reviewing applications and inviting the most highly qualified candidates for interviews at Johnson Space Center in Houston before the final selection of 8 to 14 astronaut candidates in mid-2017.

Training for the chosen candidates includes a focus on spacewalking and teamwork, as well as some command of Russian language.

Candidates who finish this will eventually be assigned to one of four spacecraft: the International Space Station, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for deep space exploration, or the American-made commercial crew spacecraft from Boeing or SpaceX.

This new recruitment period followed shortly after the previous batch of astronauts had finished training, preparing them to become helpful in advancing the scientific studies taking place aboard the International Space Station (ISS). That year, 6,000 applied for the position.

NASA plans to put a man on Mars sometime in the 2030’s, but before that can happen it needs to successfully complete a number of other missions including a lunar flyby sometime around 2023. Classes are picked every so often based on mission needs. In the latest round, NASA reported that 18,300 applicants applied.