Astronaut in 1959: X-15 rocket-plane pilot
The work of Astronaut is summarised as 1959’s “X-15 rocket-plane pilot.” The figure beside that summary is 15. A salary line in a job advert is not the job. NASA's two-seat supersonic jet trainer, flown continuously by the corps since the 1960s — not nostalgia but a deliberate tool for practicing real-time, real-consequence cockpit decision-making between flights.
Through a national or commercial selection, entered from another career. NASA requires a STEM master's degree (or a medical degree, test-pilot school, or doctoral work) plus professional experience or 1,000 hours piloting jets; ESA, JAXA, Canada and China run comparable competitions. Survivors of medical, psychological and interview rounds then complete roughly two years of basic training before becoming eligible for a flight assignment.
Far less than the fame suggests. NASA astronauts are civil servants: the 2024 selection quoted $152,258 a year, inside a general band of roughly $105k–190k. ESA's 2022 class started around €6,000–7,000 a month; Roscosmos published cosmonaut salaries in 2019 equal to only about $25,000–30,000 a year before flight bonuses. Military astronauts stay on their service's officer pay.
How long does astronaut training take? About two years of basic training covers spacecraft systems, spacewalking in a giant pool, robotics, jet flying, wilderness survival and the Russian language. Graduation only makes you eligible: a specific mission then adds 18–30 months of dedicated training across Houston, Star City, Cologne and Tsukuba. Counting the prior degrees and career, most astronauts fly 15–20 years after leaving school.
Say Astronaut with 1959, “X-15 rocket-plane pilot,” and 15. Pay does not replace those three.1959
Figures to keep
- Year of the account
- 1959
- Figure from the work
- 15
- Occupation
- Astronaut
- The task line
- X-15 rocket-plane pilot
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