As far as Career ideas go, thinking about becoming an astronaut is perhaps one of the hardest, most selective Careers to get into in the world. Competition is extremely intense, so if you are not 110% committed to doing this, you may as well start thinking of other New careers you can move into. Trying to become an astronaut is extremely serious bu-siness, and as a result of the exceptionally limited number of places existing, you really do have to be the best of the best in order to be considered. Here we are going to check out what it takes to become an astronaut.

Straight off, one of the advantageous things that will go in your favour when applying to become an astronaut is being an American citizen. NASA is the only possible way to become an astronaut at the present time, with the majority countries either putting their space programs on hold (Russia) or doing them rather secretively (China). Now, you don’t have to be an American in order to have a chance – NASA do take on applicants from space agencies from other countries. Back in the 1990s, Helen Sharman was sent into orbit on Russia’s Mir space station, being the only British citizen to have done so at that time. So, you do still have a chance, although it’s an incredibly small one. Even if you are American, you are still facing pretty hard odds – usually around 3000 people submit an application to NASA when they open the applications every other year, and this has to be narrowed down to 25 people.

In order to be amongst those selected 25, you have to have a very high level of fitness, academically talented, and, if you would like to pilot the space shuttle, you must have acquired a decent total of airtime flying jets – over 1000. Becoming the pilot for NASA is even more challenging than becoming an astronaut, as the requirements are so harsh.

For your education, you must be educated to degree level, and you must have a degree in either engineering, biological or physical science, or mathematics. The great thing about this is, even you don’t make it as an astronaut, anyone of these degrees still leaves a lot of New careers open to you. You may want to consider other Career ideas before even becoming an astronaut – not only do you need to get a degree, you must gain3 years of professional work experience. It also helps if you really excel on your degree grades and score highly – just getting through with a pass won’t make you look good, chances are there will be hundreds if not thousands of other candidates with better results than just a pass. You really must give it your best shot!

Even once you become an astronaut, possible space time is varied and typically there aren’t many openings to get into space. Of course, if you do have the opportunity to go, you are experiencing something very few people ever have experienced, and you’ll be in one of the most technologically advanced Careers in existence.