By the numbers, it’s much easier to get into an Ivy League university than to become a NASA astronaut.
Each year, about 19 of every 20 hopeful high school students applying to institutions like Princeton, Harvard and Yale are disappointed with rejection letters. The acceptance rates are only in the single digits.
But those are still really good odds compared to what NASA astronaut applicants face.
The last time the space agency opened the door for a new class of astronauts, more than 12,000 people applied. In December 2021, NASA selected 10 of them — a rejection rate of more than 99.9 percent. That was actually a bump upward from the previous round, in 2017, when 18,300 people applied, and NASA chose just 12.
Not all of the astronauts at NASA are eligible to fly into space. Some have taken management positions at the space agency, including Pamela Melroy, NASA’s current deputy administrator, and hence are known as management astronauts. They cannot be assigned to a mission unless they relinquish their position and return to the roster of active astronauts.
That leaves 41 astronauts currently regarded as active at NASA. It is from this group that the agency is choosing the four astronauts who will get to travel to the moon during the Artemis II mission.
(Members of the newest class of 10 are not eligible for Artemis II. They have not yet completed their initial training, and remain “astronaut candidates.” They might be ready by the time the crew for Artemis III is chosen.)
In December 2020, NASA announced an “Artemis team” of 18 astronauts, suggesting that the crews of the early missions would be selected from this group. But in August of last year, Reid Wiseman, the head of the astronaut office, said all active astronauts would be considered.
“We want to assemble the right team for this mission,” he said.
Except that it is the head of the astronaut office, and his or her deputy, who are in charge of assigning crews, and they are not allowed to choose themselves.
Mr. Wiseman has since stepped down from that position, as has his deputy, Andrew Feustel, so both men are now eligible for Artemis II. Their replacements — Joseph Acaba as head of the office and Shannon Walker as the deputy — are not.
Astronauts currently in orbit at the International Space Station, as well as those who will be heading there for six months later this year, are also unlikely to be chosen for Artemis II; they would not have time to train.
Then again, some astronauts might be happy they were not selected for the swing around the moon on Artemis II. Because that would mean they are still available for the biggest moment of the program — the first moon landing during Artemis III.
