Brush up your resumé and ditch your day job: NASA is hiring astronauts for future space missions.
However, it doesn’t look like Homer Simpson would make it through this selection process. NASA want candidates with a bachelor's degree – or preferably an advanced degree – in engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics.
They’d also like you to have 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command experience in a jet aircraft or three years' experience in a “progressively responsible” related job.
As you can imagine, it’s a bit of a squeeze on a spacecraft, so it also helps if you’re average height. You’ll need to pass the NASA physical and have extremely good eyesight and blood pressure, too. It might sound tough, but not many jobs come with an all-expenses paid trip to space.
If you get selected, you’ll be flying on the International Space Station, the Orion deep-space exploration vehicle or two other spacecraft currently in development.
NASA will start accepting applications from December 14 online and hopes to announce the successful candidates in mid-2017.
This isn’t the first time NASA has held open applications. They held some in 2012 and received over 6,000 applications.
“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, in a statement.
“NASA has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program – and our U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions. We encourage all qualified applicants to learn more about the opportunities for astronauts at NASA and apply to join our flight operations team.”
Don’t get your hopes up, though. According to WIRED, based on the average number of applicants the chances of becoming an astronaut this way are less than 0.17 percent.
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