Also called: Commercial Astronaut, NASA Astronaut
Travels to space to conduct experiments, repair spacecraft, and explore.
Astronauts train for years in simulators, underwater pools, and survival courses, then live on the space station doing science experiments and spacewalks. Private companies now employ commercial astronauts too.
NASA pays federal GS-12 to GS-15 salaries.
Master's degree, about 12 years after high school. Master's in a STEM field (or medical degree or test pilot school) plus years of experience; NASA accepts only about 10 of 12,000+ applicants per class.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, Military. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Biology, Medicine.
Growing slowly. Very few positions.
Low risk for 10 years. Robots do more in space, but crewed missions keep needing people for experiments, repairs and spacewalks; selection is the bottleneck.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP Biology, PE/fitness.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.