NASA has announced the 2017 astronaut candidates who will undergo training for space flight. They are Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Robb Kulin, Jessica Watkins, Loral O'Hara, Jonny Kim, Frank Rubio, Matthew Dominick, Warren Hoburg, Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, and Raja Chari. These five women and seven men were selected from over 18,000 applicants. All twelve candidates have at least a Masters degree, several have military training, a few have PhDs and there are a couple of medical doctors. If you want to feel really inadequate, you can check out their individual biographies.
Dr. Jonny Kim has been selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He will report for duty in August 2017. The California native 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.
We've come a long way from the days when all you had to do to qualify was to be one of the best test pilots in the Air Force. That still helps, but now you also have to have documented expertise in science or engineering in order to make NASA's missions. -via reddit
(Image credit: NASA)