NASA is Looking For New Astronauts
The American space agency NASA is looking for new astronauts who will go on future missions. It needs astronauts for the International Space Station and for its new Orion spacecraft , which is is scheduled take astronauts into earth orbit and possibly be used to launch manned missions to Mars and beyond.
New astronauts are needed to fly the new generation of NASA spacecraft as well as to conduct experiments on the ISS .
Candidates who apply be American citizens and have at least a bachelor's degree in biology, physics or mathematics, 3 years of experience or a thousand pilot hours. They must also pass NASA's physical tests for long endurance flights.
NASA is looking for people with a different backgrounds , set to do different tasks.
During NASA's last recruitment program over 6000 people applied and 8 were chosen to be astronauts. The final selection for the current application program will be announced in 2017.
According to NASA the need for new astronauts has never been greater, as there are many spacecraft currently under development. NASA plans to go back to the moon as the first phase of travelling to Mars.
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Words
- according to =as said by ...
- announce = to say officially
- apply = to write a document saying that you want to have a job
- bachelor's degree = title you get after you have finished the first course of study at a university
- background = a person's family, education, past work etc..
- citizen = a person who lives in a country and has rights there
- conduct = carry out
- current = right now
- experience = knowledge that you have from doing things
- launch = start
- long endurance = for a longer time
- mission = here: spacecraft that travels to space in order to get a job done
- manned mission = trip to space with people on board
- orbit = to go around an object in a circle
- pass = succeed
- physical = about the body
- recruitment program = the job of finding new people for a special job
- schedule = plan
- set = prepared
- space agency = organization that is in control of a country's space program
- spacecraft = an object that is able to travel to space
- task = job
- under development = here: being produced right now