Preparing for the High Frontier The Role and Training of NASA Astronauts in the Post-Space Shuttle Era (2011) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 The Evolution of the U.S. Astronaut Program
1 The Evolution of the U.S. Astronaut Program
Pages 9-36
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 9... ...
Now, with the end of the Space Shuttle program and its unique training requirements, the NASA Johnson Space Center FCOD and the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) Training Division are reviewing astronaut staffing and training facilities for the future.
|
From page 10... ...
The size of the Astronaut Corps has historically been aligned not just with the spacecraft being flown at the time but with future human spaceflight programs in development but not yet flying. Because of the lead time required to train an astronaut through a basic and then a mission-specific training syllabus -- often up to 4 years for the ISS -- the Astronaut Office and the Mission Operations Training Division were required to develop reliable forecasting algorithms for personnel and facilities.
|
From page 11... ...
The astronaut program began with only military test pilots, progressed to include scientist-astronauts during Apollo and Skylab, and now is composed of test pilots and mission specialists (engineers, scientists, and physicians) and educators and international partner astronauts sent by their home agencies to train alongside their U.S.
|
From page 12... ...
d All had delayed flight assignments because of the requirement that they spend a year at USAF UPT to be jet pilot qualified. Seven remained after Apollo and formed the core of the space shuttle mission specialists before the 1978 astronaut selection.
|
From page 13... ...
SOURCE: NASA Astronaut Office, "Ensuring the Readiness of the Astronaut Corps: A White Paper," NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex., March 25, 2011. are notable: (1)
|
From page 14... ...
1 Mercury The first members of the NASA Astronaut Corps (Group I, Mercury 7) were all active-duty military test pilots or graduates of the Air Force or Navy test pilot school who had at least 1,500 hours of flying time.
|
From page 15... ...
15 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.3 Mercury capsule 2 pictured at what was formerly Lewis Hangar (now Glenn Research Center)
|
From page 16... ...
The fleet of T-38 aircraft was maintained by NASA at the former Ellington Air Force Base near Johnson Space Center. The aircraft were eventually used by both the professional pilot astronauts and the scientist-astronauts to introduce and maintain skills deemed necessary for successful and safe spaceflight; this activity became known as spaceflight readiness training (SFRT)
|
From page 17... ...
Believing that the program needed an Astronaut Corps of 24 to crew Gemini and Apollo, NASA management conducted a new recruitment in 1963 (Group III) that gave preference to test pilots but allowed for the selection of candidates with only 1,000 hours of high-performance jet flying time.
|
From page 18... ...
In 1965 and 1966, NASA's long-term schedule called for as many as 30 Apollo Extension Program (AEP) or Apollo Applications Program (AAP)
|
From page 19... ...
19 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.7 Technicians make final inspections of the Gemini 3 spacecraft in the spacecraft preparation room at Kennedy Space Center.
|
From page 20... ...
Specifically, not all scientist-astronauts selected for the Astronaut Office and sent to flight school decided to continue in the Corps after that experience. Apollo 1 Fire in 1967 and Implications for the Astronaut Corps On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 capsule caught fire on the pad at the Kennedy Space Center.
|
From page 21... ...
21 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.9 Apollo 13 astronauts practice a moonwalk at Kennedy Space Center.
|
From page 22... ...
Seven of the 14 men -- all military test pilots -- joined the Astronaut Corps, bringing its total size in late 1969 to 64 (Group VII)
|
From page 23... ...
The Shuttle Era: 1978-1986 By 1972, when the space shuttle contract was awarded to Rockwell International, NASA began planning for a new type of astronaut to fly on and operate the space shuttle. A NASA selection panel developed criteria for two types of NASA astronauts: pilots and mission specialists.
|
From page 24... ...
House and NASA believed that the Astronaut Office should "look like America." To ensure that the broadest population possible could apply, the space shuttle physical anthropometric standards were enlarged to allow larger men (95th percentile) and smaller women (5th percentile)
|
From page 25... ...
The Astronaut Corps in 1985 was just large enough to support the flight rate and crew training template. In some cases, mission specialists in particular were rotating from one flight to training for another flight with only a few weeks in between.
|
From page 26... ...
SOURCE: Courtesy of Northrop Grumman History Center. FIGURE 1.15 T-38N jets in flight over NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California.
|
From page 27... ...
The Post-Challenger Shuttle Era: 1988-2011 In mid-1993, NASA and the newly formed Russian Space Agency (RSA) signed an agreement to initiate a joint program to dock the space shuttle to the Mir space station in the expectation that RSA would join the International Space Station.
|
From page 28... ...
They are integral to the development of flight procedures, which generally change with each mission. HISTORY OF NASA GROUND TRAINING FACILITIES AND ALLOCATION FOR SPACEFLIGHT READINESS TRAINING Astronaut training must cover a wide array of skills, which require a variety of training facilities.
|
From page 29... ...
29 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.17 Crew members from STS-71, Mir-18, and Mir-19 pose for an in-flight picture.
|
From page 30... ...
The MOD Training Division works closely with FCOD to ensure that simulators and other trainers provide the appropriate fidelity, and both MOD and FCOD are responsible for ensuring that crews pass training tests before flight. The introduction of each new spacecraft and new tasks (such as EVAs and rendezvous and docking)
|
From page 31... ...
FIGURE 1.20 NASA astronaut candidates conduct an emergency egress drill during land survival training. SOURCE: Courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center Features; available at http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000255.html.
|
From page 32... ...
In general, NASA adopted a policy of having low-fidelity mockups of international equipment at JSC and sending astronauts overseas to the international partners who possessed the high-fidelity trainers and equipment (Figure 1.24)
|
From page 33... ...
33 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.22 The Project Mercury altitude wind tunnel gimbaling rig.
|
From page 34... ...
Changes in training have been driven not only by the introduction of new spacecraft and requirements but by the need to accommodate astronauts whose experience is different from that of test pilots. Now, with the shuttle retired and the ISS having entered its fully operational phase, the agency is undergoing a new, and uncertain, transformation, which will also have implications for the Flight Crew Operations Directorate, the Astronaut Office, and the Astronaut Corps.
|
From page 35... ...
35 THE EVOLUTION OF THE U.S. ASTRONAUT PROGRAM FIGURE 1.24 STS-131 preparing to dock with the International Space Station on April 7, 2010.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.