November 2015 – Page 2 – Commercial Crew Program

Join Our Crew!

Want to be an astronaut? Now is a good time to get your resume together, sort out your references and decide whether you have the right stuff to join NASA’s elite corps of space travelers. For our part, we can offer the world out your window and a new generation of spacecraft and launch vehicles unlike any flying today.

With the International Space Station’s ability to host unique science experiments and journeys to deep space and Mars on the horizon, now is an exciting time to don the blue suit and think about what your voyage into space would accomplish for everyone on Earth! By the way, you don’t have to be a pilot or bring military experience.

Applications for our next astronaut class open on Dec. 14! Visit https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/ for more information and the requirements.

Construction Tops Off Crew Access Tower at SLC-41

It took only 35 days to build the main column of a new fixture to the skyline along the Florida Space Coast. The 200-foot-tall Crew Access Tower at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida will meet the unique needs of astronauts and ground crews at Space Launch Complex 41, or SLC-41, where Boeing will launch its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on Atlas V rockets operated by United Launch Alliance, also known as ULA. Read all the details here. Photos by NASA/Kim Shiflett (top) and Daniel Casper (right).

Astronauts to Mark Station’s 15-Year Anniversary

Humans have lived aboard the International Space Station continuously for 15 years, a record accomplishment that astronauts and cosmonauts will discuss from orbit this morning at 10:05 eastern on NASA TV. Although placed in orbit in 1998, the station did not welcome its first three residents until Nov. 2, 2000. That was the day NASA astronaut Bill Shepard and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev docked with the fledgling orbital outpost.

It would take dozens more astronauts and cosmonauts along with space shuttle missions and more than 180 spacewalks to turn the station into the functioning, cutting-edge laboratory it is today. Expedition 45 crew members will talk to the world’s news media about the space exploration milestone and what it means for research for those on the Earth and how it will help our goals for deep-space exploration in the future. The anniversary also comes as NASA stands at the cusp of launching a new generation of human-rated spacecraft to the station with partners Boeing and SpaceX.

Well-suited for years more research from its unique place in space, the International Space Station will host twice as much research time when the new spacecraft – called the CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon – begin making operational flights to orbit carrying four station crew members at a time.