Since 1978, all new groups of NASA astronauts contain women and usually reflect many races and ethnic groups.
It is not a coincidence. The NASA process for choosing astronauts is not completely gender and blind. Because there are so many excellent applicants, it is possible to select a variety of and qualified candidate groups, as a manager of the NASA astronaut selection office from 1976 to 2014. Duane Ross, who was working, said.
“I didn't lose sight of what I wanted the Astronaut Corps to reflect the society,” he said.
Most of its history, NASA gained a wide range of support from Republican, Democrats, conservatives, and the Liberal Party, and exceeded the party of the party. However, its most visible employee configuration -its astronauts may collide with President Trump's Crusader against Programs that promote diversity, fairness, and inclusiveness.
The fact that NASA considers races and gender in the choice of astronauts seems to be contrary to the presidential order signed by Trump on January 22. Factors, goals, policies, delegations, or requirements. “
On the same day, the language of the federal agency, the current agent, reflects the language, and the current agent administrator Janet Petro says that the DEI program divides Americans for each race and isted taxpayers. He brought a shameful discrimination. “
NASA's astronauts have served as the courage and technical DER ambassador of the space agency. However, more than half a century ago, all former astronauts were white and mainly military exam pilots.
In the late 1970s, when the Space Shuttles were approaching, the institution worked to expand the diversity of people who had set up at the final frontier. And the current requirements for consideration are quite minimal. US citizenship. Science, engineering, or mathematics master's degree. And three years of specialized experience.
Even during Trump's first term, diversity and package were priorities for NASA staff. After that, the administrator was Jim Bridenstin, a former Republican Republican member of Oklahoma, and added “inclusion” as the fifth core value of the space agency in 2020, “consistency”, and “consistency”. “Teamwork” and “Outstanding” have been added.
Under Trump, NASA promised that the next month's landing would include female astronauts. Under President Biden, NASA has expanded his promise to include “colored people”, but was not necessarily the landing of the first ARTEMIS program.
The inclusion was clearly revealed in March last year, when NASA issued a new astronaut call. April Jordan, the current manager of the astronaut Selection Office, wants to choose a group that reflects American society.
“Astronaut is the face of NASA,” said Jordan in an interview with the podcast “AMPLIFY TALENT.”
She quoted the crew of NASA's future ARTEMIS II mission, including Victor Glover and Christina Koch. The flight is to hang the moon without landing.
“I think you can see black astronauts and female astronauts with this very important mission,” said Jordan. “So, I feel responsible for ensuring that we will continue to build diversity in astronaut corps.”
“Our offices look at this intention, and we are thinking about our prejudice and how it will affect the hires,” he says. I did it. “I think it's a big victory.”
How well NASA is doing? Nobody knows. A 2022 report by government agencies stated that NASA lacked more than one -third racial and ethnic information of astronauts.
Roger Launius, a chief historian of NASA in the 1990s, aimed at promoting diversity in the purpose of promoting the positive image of NASA among wider voters to continue it. He said he was there.
“It's at least part of thinking,” said Dr. Launius.
Last year, over 8,000 applications were poured before the deadline on April 16. The NASA timeline will announce the choice in June this year.
Sheryl Warner, a NASA spokeswoman, stated that the choice of astronauts was moving forward as planned. “NASA is focusing on attracting and choosing the best astronaut candidates based on qualifications, skills, and experience that supports agencies to achieve human space flight goals. “She said.
Adding NASA astronauts to your resume is one of the most difficult goals in the world.
In the round of 2021, 10 people were selected. If NASA selects 10 other astronaut candidates this time, this will be less than 0.13 %. It is much easier to be accepted by California Institute of Technology or another very selective university.
Since the beginning of human space, NASA has always had a much higher qualified candidate than the opening.
“I never chose a person who didn't feel completely qualified just to include 100 %, minority and women,” said Ross. “It didn't happen.”
When applicants who do not meet the basic requirements are abandoned, we recommend that people, including the current astronauts, read the application and which is more worthwhile.
In 1978, NASA has not chose astronauts since 1969. All astronauts in the 1960s were white.
“It was a partial function of the place we were in society at the time,” said Dr. Launius.
The requirements of astronauts selected as the NASA mercury program is that it is effectively impossible to find a woman with that skill set in order to have a background as a high -performance test pilot. Dr. said. “There was an African American, but there were very few African Americans.”
One fighter pilot, Eddowite, met the qualification, but NASA did not choose him. The personal funded research program indicated that women could pass the physiological test used by NASA, but the space agency did not seriously consider the possibility of a woman becoming an astronaut. 。
“In the 1960s, there were some efforts to expand it, but it didn't bread out,” said Dr. Launius.
At the end of the Apollo program, NASA did not need an additional astronaut until the space shuttle was ready. And this time, NASA worked to convey words not only to white men, but also to organizations like the Women's Engineer Association.
Mr. Los said that the assignment was not set. “But we certainly had the goal of including the people of all life,” he said.
Ross said that it was probably “about 1,000” out of thousands of applicants.
“So we continued to squeeze little by little,” he said. “There were excellent female applicants and minority applicants, so it wasn't necessary to fag to the system to work, and they were there and you had to do it. I just chose them. “
Sally Ride became the first American woman who flew to space during the seventh space shuttle mission in 1983. In the next mission, Gion Blue Ford became the first black American to reach the track.
Garrett Rayman, a retired NASA astronaut, said that when he served in the selection committee in 2009, he could not remember a specific conversation in discussions on race, gender, and diversity. 。
“It was known that it was one of what we were aiming for,” said Dr. Raysman. “If there are two completely equal people in all other points, yes, it will be an advantage that there are people who have diversity in the office.”
Dr. Raysman said that in addition to the flight on the rocket, the important part of the work would stimulate the next generation. “We can't stimulate all American children,” he said.
He remembered the July 4th parade in Houston's downtown in 1998, a newly selected astronaut. He and other members of his group were riding several fire trucks. “There were a lot of people looking at the parade along the parade route,” said Dr. Raysman.
The audience responded, “I was almost indifferent,” he said. Then, when the children found his fellow astronaut Landy Land Melvin, the black astronaut, “You can see them brightly, they started up and started applause.” Said Dr. Raysman.
“The impact of being standing on the fire truck was very powerful just by looking at his ability to excite these children without doing anything.”
He added, “And if you can't connect with those children, you leave the whole group of people.”
