Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

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#1 Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by bernomatic »

Here are the new recruits
2017 NASA ASTRONAUT RECRUIT CLASS.jpg
2017 NASA ASTRONAUT RECRUIT CLASS.jpg (132.14 KiB) Viewed 6370 times
NASA announced its 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class on June 7, 2017. The 12 candidates, pictured here at NASA’s Ellington Field in Houston, are Zena Cardman, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Jasmin Moghbeli, U.S. Navy Lt. Jonny Kim, U.S. Army Maj. Francisco “Frank” Rubio, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Dominick, Warren “Woody” Hoburg, Robb Kulin, U.S. Navy Lt. Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Raja Chari, Loral O’Hara and Jessica Watkins.
Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz
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#2 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by luke strawwalker »

Pretty heavy on the military by the sounds of it.

Thought we were past the "Right Stuff" sorta thinking and more into the "scientist-astronauts" type realm, but I guess it's going the other way now.

Maybe they'll even get to fly once or twice before they retire... IF SLS survives and they actually find a mission for it and a way to pay for it...

Later! OL J R :)
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#3 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

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Quite the diverse crowd.
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#4 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by luke strawwalker »

Got any bios or info on them?

Seeing how they will undoubtedly wait for years before they fly, if ever... Would be interesting to see who was willing to sign on...

Later! OL J R
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#5 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by bernomatic »

The 2017 astronaut candidates are:

Kayla Barron, 29, Lt., U.S. Navy, is originally from Richland, Washington. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering. A Gates Cambridge Scholar, Barron earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge. As a submarine warfare officer, Barron was a member of the first class of women commissioned into the submarine community. She’ll come to NASA from the U.S. Naval Academy, where she has been serving as the flag aide to the superintendent.

Zena Cardman, 29, calls Williamsburg, Virginia, home. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Master of Science in Marine Sciences at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Cardman is currently a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working on her doctorate at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on microorganisms in subsurface environments, ranging from caves to deep sea sediments. Her field experience includes multiple Antarctic expeditions, work aboard research vessels as both scientist and crew, and NASA analog missions in British Columbia, Idaho and Hawaii.

Raja Chari, 39, Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force, hails from Waterloo, Iowa. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with bachelor’s degrees in astronautical engineering and engineering science. He continued on to earn a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Chari has been serving as the commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and the director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Matthew Dominick, 35, Lt. Cmdr., U.S. Navy, was born and raised in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of San Diego and a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Dominick was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan, serving as department head for Strike Fighter Squadron 115, when he got the call saying he’d been selected as an astronaut candidate.

Bob Hines, 42, considers Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, his hometown. He graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. From there, he went on to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, and then the University of Alabama, where he earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. He has served in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves for 18 years. For the last five years, Hines has served as a NASA research pilot at Johnson.

Warren “Woody” Hoburg, 31, is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. He continued on to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkley. He is a private pilot and has extensive experience with wilderness search and rescue efforts. Hoburg will come to NASA from MIT, where he currently is leading a research group as an assistant professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dr. Jonny Kim, 33, Lt., U.S. Navy, was born and raised in Los Angeles. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, then trained and operated as a Navy SEAL, completing more than 100 combat operations and earning a Silver Star and Bronze Star with Combat V. Afterward, he went on to complete a degree in mathematics at the University of San Diego and a doctorate of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Kim is a resident physician in emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Robb Kulin, 33, hails from Anchorage, Alaska. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Denver before going on to complete a master’s degree in materials science and a doctorate in engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He has previous experience as an ice driller in Antarctica on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Taylor Glaciers, and as a commercial fisherman in Chignik, Alaska. Since 2011, Kulin has worked for SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, where he leads the Launch Chief Engineering group.

Jasmin Moghbeli, 33, Maj., U.S. Marine Corps, considers Baldwin, New York, her hometown. She earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering with information technology at MIT, followed by a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. She also is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Moghbeli currently tests H-1 helicopters and serves as the quality assurance and avionics officer for Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 in Yuma, Arizona.

Loral O’Hara, 34, calls Sugar Land, Texas, home. She earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University. As a student, she participated in NASA’s KC-135 Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, the NASA Academy at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the internship program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. O’Hara is currently a research engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Dr. Francisco “Frank” Rubio, 41, Maj., U.S. Army, is originally from Miami. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a doctorate of medicine from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Rubio has accumulated more than 1,100 hours of flight time in helicopters, including 600 hours of combat and imminent danger time. He’s currently serving as a surgeon for the 3rd Battalion of the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Jessica Watkins, 29, hails from Lafayette, Colorado. She graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences, then went on to earn a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Watkins has worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory and currently is a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where she collaborates on the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.
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#6 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

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Here are Vice President Pence's remarks for the selection...
:arrow: video

He has some interesting remarks around the 6 minute to eight minute mark. 8-)
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#7 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by luke strawwalker »

bernomatic wrote:Here are Vice President Pence's remarks for the selection...
:arrow: video

He has some interesting remarks around the 6 minute to eight minute mark. 8-)
Interesting! Certainly more inspiring words than the flat dishwater utterances and vague nonsense of our last "president", whose deepest thought was "been there, done that"... (moron... UGGGH!!!! )

Hopefully what Pence says comes to pass. Won't exactly hold my breath, mind you-- NASA has become FAR too entrenched a bureaucracy and too much a political football, subject to the whims and vapid self-interests of a handful of politicians and Congressvermin and revolving door professional bureaucrats, professional lobbyists, and big-money space contractors and their revolving door professional "management" (non-producer) types that bounce between industry and "public service" (ie professional bureaucrats within NASA and government) to achieve the kind of greatness in the future than it has in the past, I'm afraid. Fundamentally things will HAVE to change if it is to achieve the levels of greatness it has in the past-- and the reinstatement of the Space Council is a good first step, but it's ONLY the first step on a VERY long journey I'm afraid, and I'm not sure many more steps will be forthcoming or are even possible given the devotion of the bureaucracy to the "status quo" in "protecting their turf".

Time will tell.

One thing I know-- if the current methodology of slow-rolling everything at the current pace and planned pace for the future space program continues, moving to a model more in common with the lethargic albeit graduated pace of the Chinese space program rather than the "glory days" of Gemini, Apollo, or even the shuttle era, most of these astronauts will be lucky to fly in space once, maybe twice, before their age and careers take them in different directions. I find it particularly pathetic that, 50 years after the height of the "space race" which essentially began with NOTHING and culminated in the moon landing in 1969 just 8 years after man's first flight in space, that back when we had only a very limited knowledge base and only the most rudimentary (by today's standards) means of testing and design, back then we managed to build the world's largest HLV, a completely new deep-space vehicle, a lunar landing vehicle capable of descent, landing, and launch from the surface of another world about which we knew EXTREMELY little, space suits capable of safely operating routinely in one of the most hostile environments imaginable, and operating capably enough to allow unprecedented operations in that environment, and invented all the other means of navigation, computation, calculation, propulsion, communication, and everything else necessary to go there and operate... and to do it within 8 years basically starting with nothing but basic principles or "book knowledge" and little/no practical experience other than that developed in the missile race of the 1950's and cutting edge military aviation...

And here we are, 50 years later, with ALL the fruits of the technological revolutions that those innovations and research and experience drove and contributed to in related fields and which built upon those original and related achievements, with all that experience and knowledge and all the new tools that 50 years of technological progress has made available to be brought to bear, and yet here we are... over 13 years after the loss of the Columbia shuttle brought a long-awaited and much-needed press of the 'reset' button on the nation's space direction and efforts, and we have SO LITTLE to show for it... an Orion vehicle that has flown ONCE unmanned in a developmental version and recovered successfully, albeit on a launch vehicle that will not ever be used again for launching that spacecraft... and a heavy launch vehicle (SLS) STILL in development 7 years after its official approval, but which was based upon the original plans for the Ares V vehicle and dating back basically decades before that to various shuttle-augmenting HLV designs using shuttle-derived technology, making use of modified but preexisting shuttle components like engines and the basic (though heavily modified) shuttle External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters... yet it STILL hasn't flown and will not fly for another few years, and even when it does, other than a single manned test flight of the Orion, NOTHING has been officially approved or FUNDED for its further use, and no missions of real consequence have been proposed to justify its continued existence, let alone the development and FUNDING of the necessary adjuncts to perform such missions, ie deep-space propulsion stages, mission and habitation modules, ancillary equipment like rovers and long-duration suits, etc.... All of which may well take ANOTHER decade of development AFTER it's finally approved to be ready for flight status...

It's a rather ridiculous and shameful situation that our "leaders" have allowed to develop...

Later! OL J R :)
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#8 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by Commander »

I'm not sure about the President Trump, but you can sure tell that Vice President Pence is a space junkie. I believe that once he gets the space council going, a lot of bureaucrats at NASA will be looking for some new (office) space to explore. :lol: With President Trump behind him looking at ways to spend the money better, I think NASA is in for a change from the old swamp days.

That is if the mainstream media ever realize they aren't going to stop him and just start reporting with some credibility.
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#9 Re: Welcome to the new NASA Astronaut recruits

Post by luke strawwalker »

Commander wrote:I'm not sure about the President Trump, but you can sure tell that Vice President Pence is a space junkie. I believe that once he gets the space council going, a lot of bureaucrats at NASA will be looking for some new (office) space to explore. :lol: With President Trump behind him looking at ways to spend the money better, I think NASA is in for a change from the old swamp days.

That is if the mainstream media ever realize they aren't going to stop him and just start reporting with some credibility.
LOL that'll be the day! OL J R
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