Expert: Ed - 3/19/2008

Question
How I become a NASA astronaut as i am an Indian of under graduate?
please let me know about the institutes in the world for training to become a NASA astronaut and essential degrees or procedure to be select in NASA.


Answer
Saransh,

This is NASA's website for astronaut selection:
http://www.nasajobs.nasa.gov/astronauts/default.htm

If you click on the FAQ section on that website, it will inform you that you need to be a US citizen to be a NASA astronaut.  NASA officially recommends that non-US citizens look at this website:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oer/f_orgs.html

I do not see an Indian program mentioned there. But here are some articles about India's possibilities for having a space program in the future.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0111/p06s01-wosc.html

www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/nov/03/spaceexploration.india

www.spacedaily.com/news/Manned_Spaceflight_Plans_For_India_To_The_ISS_And_Beyond.html

If you are very serious about this, perhaps you should try to e-mail some of the people mentioned in those articles.  Or, maybe you could e-mail their secretaries, or the main contact e-mail at the university departments where they work.

Another possibility is to find a way to make lots (I mean, LOTS) of money, so you could pay to be a commercial space tourist.  Look at this website:
www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/08/14/space.hotel.reut/index.html

I hope this gets you started.  Please get back to me if you would like to talk about this more.

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed