Commentary | The Future of Astronaut Activity

The astronaut corps is a unique group of people, handpicked from a wide range of scientific and technical professions, winnowed down through very rigorous selection methods, after which the select few are trained for complex space missions that involve a lot of risk, nail-biting and adrenalin at both the space crew and mission control ends. The human spaceflight crews at NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, the European Space Agency and the China National Space Administration are still considered the pinnacle of human and technological achievement and prestige in the world’s leading spacefaring economies and their space agencies.