How hard is it to become an astronaut anyway?

Spoiler: It's really hard.

By Amanda Chen

Every four years, NASA chooses a select new group of astronauts to explore where few humans have ever explored, and discover the unknown. The newest class of NASA astronauts, Group 23, were chosen last fall and received a particularly high amount of buzz given the new Artemis Program that was announced back in May 2019. This program is dedicated sending humans back to the moon by 2024, and eventually onward to Mars. With these new sights in mind, the anticipation to join the Artemis class of astronauts was high… and the competition was brutal.

Applications to join the Artemis Generation was open from March 2-31, 2020 and during that period, NASA received over 12,000 applications from hopeful astronauts. This number was only second to the previous 2017’s cycle, where a record-breaking 18,300-plus applications were received. 2021’s candidate qualifications were more stringent than its previous cycle, which might explain the disparity between the two. Now, instead of a Bachelor’s degree, the education requirements have been raised to a Master’s or PhD, and the application period has also been shortened on top of that. The process to getting an offer to join NASA’s ranks is a long and arduous one. Over the course of 18 months, candidates are assessed, evaluated, and interviewed with careful eyes, that is, if they even make it that far.

Let’s take a look at the application process and see just how hard it really is to become one of the lucky chosen few.

Each dot represents one applicant.

We already know more than 12,000 hopefuls applied to be apart of NASA’s Group 23.

Of these 12,000 applicants, most won’t have the necessary degrees, experience in lab work, or logged flight hours needed to be even get their application in front of a pair of eyes.

These unqualified or not-qualified-enough applications will be tossed, leaving about 500 “Highly Qualified” applicants to be reviewed by NASA’s Astronaut Selection Board.

During this review process, references and Qualifications Inquiry forms are sent out to further narrow down the group.

Of the 500 “Highly Qualified” individuals, only about 120 are invited to interview at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

First round interviews take place.

Only half of those who have made it so far will be chosen to return for second round interviews.

Second round interviews and asessments take place.

From 12,000 initial applicants to now the 60 who are still in the runnning, there is a 0.5% chance of getting this far. From the final 60, we will meet our Candidate Class.

In December 2021, 10 individuals were chosen to be apart of NASA’s Artemis generation. They will report to the Johnson Space Center in January of 2022 for two years of astronaut training before being assigned a mission, hopefully to the moon.

These lucky few have defeated the odds. From 12,000 applicants to 10 invitations, the acceptance rate to be an astronaut is 0.08%. To put that into perspective, it is 62 times harder to become an astronaut than it is to get into Harvard, which has an acceptance rate of 5%.

From Navy commanders and test pilots to distinguished engineers and physicists, these individuals come from a wide range of professions and backgrounds. When looking at their resumes, there is no doubt that these individuals, chosen to be apart of NASA’s new class of astronauts, have the hightest and most outstanding qualifications that put them at the top of the 12,000 who initially applied.

Meet NASA's Artemis Generation: