NASA Selects Nine New Astronauts

June 29, 2009

So what does an agent with the CIA, two Air Force officers with the Pentagon and a couple of medical doctors have in common? Apparently, NASA believes they have the mettle for future space travel.

The agency has selected nine people to join its elite astronaut corps, though they likely won’t be flying anytime soon. The space shuttles are due to be retired next year and a replacement isn’t expected to become operational until about 2015. A few lucky souls may snag seats on the Russian Soyuz capsules, which will be ferrying space station crewmembers to and fro during the hiatus.

The Astronaut Class of 2009 is the first new hires in five years. The nine candidates are expected to report to the Johnson Space Center in Houston this summer to begin a year of basic training. At its peak, NASA added 35 astronauts to the corps (44 if you include nine astronauts from other countries that trained with the group at JSC).

Astronaut pay ranges from $59,493 annually to $130,257, in accordance to federal government pay grades, which are based on academic achievements and experience.

NASA says more than 3,500 people applied for the jobs. The new hires are:

*Serena Aunon, 33, of League City, Texas; a University of Texas Medical Branch flight surgeon for NASA.

*Jeanette Epps, 38, of Fairfax, Va.; a technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency.

*Air Force Maj. Jack Fischer, 35, of Reston, Va.; a test pilot and intern with the U.S. Air Force Strategic Policy, Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

*Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Hopkins, 40, of  Alexandria, Va.; a special assistant to the Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

*Kjell Lindgren, 36, of League City, Texas; a University of Texas Medical Branch flight surgeon for NASA.

*Kathleen Rubins, 30, of Cambridge, Mass.; principal investigator and fellow at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

*Navy Cmdr. Scott Tingle, 43, of Hollywood, Md.; a test pilot and assistant program manager at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

*Army Lt. Col. Mark Vande Hei, 42, of El Lago, Texas; a NASA flight controller for the International Space Station.

*Navy Lt. Col. Gregory Wiseman, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va.; a test pilot; department head of Strike Fighter Squadron 103, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

(The CIA's Jeanette Epps, Astronaut Class of 2009) 

 

Comments

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