Future astronauts face tricky transition

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Echoes of the past
NASA’s astronaut corps has faced gaps in U.S. spaceflights before, most notably between the Apollo era of the late 1960s and 1970s and the 1981 debut of the space shuttle Columbia.

“When you think of a whole cadre of people whose basic objective is to fly in space and do particularly useful work in space, as many of us did, that’s a long time to wait around and spin your wheels,” said former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who retired from spaceflight in 1986.

Garriott joined the agency as one of the first six scientist-spacefliers in 1965, flew to the U.S. space station Skylab aboard an Apollo capsule in 1973, then worked and waited for 10 years before flying aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1983. During the gap between Apollo and shuttle, he took time off to teach and got involved in early development work for what would evolve into the international space station.

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“So I think that that might very well be what some of the current number of astronauts [will do],” Garriott said. “There’s plenty of work to do. I’m sure NASA will assure them of that.”

The real challenge for NASA, stressed Launius, will be to maintain the right balance of astronaut skills to meet demands for the fading shuttle program and rising Orion project, as well as the proper mix of veterans and new flyers.

The road ahead
NASA’s astronaut corps has changed since the first seven U.S. spacefliers were announced in April 1959. Its members have shifted from steely-eyed rocket test pilots to a diverse group of men, women, military pilots, engineers and scientists, and the trend will likely continue.

“It is going to change the culture in several ways. There will be much less emphasis in high performance piloting,” said Cassutt, adding that the switch stems from NASA’s move from a winged reusable spaceship to capsule craft.

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Gone too is some of the perceived competition among today’s astronauts, who during the shuttle era could expect ongoing launches as opposed to the limited number of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights earlier in the program, Cassutt said. And access to space is getting easier by the year.

“The system exists where you can write a check and go to space, you just have to pass the physical,” said Cassutt. “In essence, you’re seeing something that is a little bit like the end of an era.”

Garriott is among the first to concede Cassutt’s point. His 46-year-old son, Richard, a millionaire computer game developer, is paying $30 million to ride a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the international space station under a deal brokered by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. Richard Garriott will be the sixth private citizen to pay his way to the space station since 2001.

Despite the changing nature of the astronaut corps, it will likely retain the camaraderie and teamwork that has governed its tight-knit crews and their exploits, astronauts said.

“I really miss the people,” Reilly said. “I look back on those 13 years as being the best 13 years of my life.”

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