2

I am a pure/applied mathematics student at Tehran University. About 2 or 3 years later I will get my bachelor's degree and start studying master's in applied math or theoretical physics. And maybe I will apply for an American or Canadian university to continue my way.

So wanna ask you if I want to be an astronaut, what should I do to be a candidate in the space organizations? Can anyone help me?

Parsa Khavarinejad
  • 21
  • 1

1 Answers1

5

Currently, if you want to become an astronaut for a traditional space agency (i.e. NASA, ESA, Roscosmos) you basically need to be a citizen of that country or in ESA's case, a citizen of one of the ESA Member States.

In the USA, the most reliable method of becoming a NASA astronaut is to be a military test pilot and eventually cross over to NASA. If you want to apply as a flight engineer or scientist, you need to be very lucky and distinguish yourself in your field somehow.

Realistically, if you want to be a space agency sponsored astronaut, you need to be extremely lucky, dedicated, and skilled. Setting your career goal as "become an astronaut" isn't a wise move as it's setting yourself up for failure.

The easiest way to become an astronaut today is to become rich. It's a pretty safe bet to say that in 20 years, space tourism will be far bigger than today and even now, if you've got a couple dozen million dollars laying about, it's doable.

called2voyage
  • 23,710
  • 10
  • 97
  • 147
Dragongeek
  • 18,658
  • 2
  • 63
  • 109
  • And even if you do get into the position that may land you astronaut, you need so many physiological qualifications too. You can't be hitting 150 bpm during a rocket launch. – Magic Octopus Urn Jun 19 '19 at 12:54
  • ESA os not an EU agency, there's overlap but not all EU members are in ESA and, conversely, not all participants in ESA are EU countries. – Diego Sánchez Jun 19 '19 at 16:26
  • Thanks for you help – Parsa Khavarinejad Jun 19 '19 at 18:05
  • 1
    Is test pilot still an extremely common background for NASA astronauts? I thought it was less important in the shuttle and post-shuttle era. e.g. STS-127 in 2009, only 2 of 6 American crew members were test pilots; the others had multiple engineering and/or MD degrees. – Russell Borogove Jun 19 '19 at 19:01
  • 1
    I made an update to address Diego's comment. Here's the source for the fact that only ESA Member State citizens can be astronauts: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Astronauts/How_to_become_an_astronaut. – called2voyage Feb 20 '20 at 16:50