Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, current, history
New astronauts—no spacecraft
These astronauts waited 2 years for a spaceship. The next group will wait much longer.NASA is set to announce its newest group of astronauts. Unlike previous groups, however, they will have no spacecraft to fly.
With the retirement of the space shuttle scheduled for next year, this group of astronauts will probably be going into space on a Russian Soyuz…at least for the next five years or so. The American replacement for the shuttle, Constellation, is still under development and will be for some time.
Astronaut candidates still plentiful
Even so, NASA received more than 3,500 applications and will select only about 10 or 12 astronauts. None of these will be flying the shuttle. Instead of learning to fly a spacecraft, they’ll spend a considerable amount of time learning Russian.
Original Mercury astronauts had to wait, too
This is, in my opinion, as sad state of affairs. The last time we had astronauts with no spacecraft was 1959. The group was known as “The Original Seven.” But the Mercury spacecraft was built and launched with an astroanut aboard two years later. This new group will have to wait much longer to fly an American spacecraft.
Update: I should point out, after 1975 there was no working American manned spacecraft. Apollo was retired and the shuttle was in development. So, any astronauts selected in that period had no spacecraft to fly either.
