New Chief Astronaut

Recently the Chief of the Astronaut Office changed from Peggy Whitson to Robert Behnken. This could explain the delay in selecting candidate astronauts (still haven't heard anything.)

The competition

The Air Force has nominated 111 airmen for the Astronaut Candidate program. They include 110 officers, ranging from captain to colonel, and one senior master sergeant.

As I said earlier, I think I have some competition...

I've been blogged!

My quest to be an astronaut has been noticed by the blog MeetingLife:
http://blog.meetinglife.com/spaceflight-doesnt-have-to-cost-the-earth/

Still not eliminated

I got postcard from NASA that says they've received my application.

Fellow astronaut applicant

Much more interesting than my blog is from a fellow astronaut applicant, a blog written by Damaris Sarria Toepel.

Not yet eliminated...

Today I got email from the Astronaut Selection Office. I hadn't yet sent in my transcripts (they aren't due until July 31), but they want them as soon as possible. They noticed this after an "initial review."

So I sent my transcripts to NASA, and will wait to see what happens next...

Record number of Astronaut applicants

NASA got almost 6400 applications for Astronaut Candidate this year, the most since 1978.

Announcement JS12A0001 has closed

If you haven't applied for the position of Astronaut Candidate, it's too late, you'll have to wait until next time.

Resume submitted

Today I took the first step towards Astronaut; I completed my resume on usajobs.gov, and submitted it against the job Astronaut Candidate. If you want to try, the deadline is January 27, 2012.

How far do I expect to get? No flight experience? No military experience? No aerospace experience? No life sciences? Not very far. But it will be interesting to see what happens next...

Here's the selection timeline.