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The Air Force has a tremendous variety of career fields available to officers —each with unique challenges and rewards. If you know exactly what you're looking for, use the keyword search for a list of job titles and descriptions. Or, if you're interested in seeing what the Air Force has to offer, browse the different career fields in the pull-down menu.
Astronaut
Duties and Responsibilities
Astronauts are responsible for the execution of space shuttle missions, their rules and control directives, assessing problems and implementing deviations from flight plan, procedures or personnel assignments in the interest of safety or mission accomplishment.
Pilot astronauts serve as both space shuttle commanders and pilots. During flight, the commander has onboard responsibility for the vehicle, crew, mission success, and safety of flight. The pilot assists the commander in controlling and operating the vehicle and may assist in the deployment and retrieval of satellites using the remote manipulator system (RMS), referred to as the robot arm or mechanical arm.
Mission specialist astronauts work with the commander and the pilot and have overall responsibility for coordinating shuttle operations in the following areas: Shuttle systems, crew activity planning, consumables usage, and experiment/payload operations. Mission specialists are trained in the details of the Orbiter onboard systems, as well as the operational characteristics, mission requirements/objectives, and supporting equipment/systems for each of the experiments conducted on their assigned missions. Mission specialists perform extravehicular activities (EVAs), or space walks, operate the remote manipulator system, and are responsible for payloads and specific experiment operations.
Civilian Opportunities
Civilian Astronaut
Duties and Responsibilities
The same as outlined for military astronauts above. Career tracks are the same.
More information on astronaut selection and training can be found at the NASA website
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