Re: Are Astronauts Heroes?
Not all astronauts go into space. They can wait for years performing lab studies and research.
Regarding Lisa Nowak (who was arrested for stalking her rival in Florida),
[ QUOTE ]
... the astronauts come under constant scrutiny by their management to determine who will fly and who will not. Some never get assigned to a space mission, yet they are called astronauts as long as they work for NASA.
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Nowak was hired as an astronaut in 1996. It was a decade before she flew into space. During that time, she was passed over again and again. Somewhere along the line during those disappointing years, I think she became brittle. She finally flew, landed and then was sent to the back of the astronaut line again.
[/ QUOTE ] (from an article I read online)
Off topic -- Some people (mainly her lawyer and family) have suggested that Lisa Nowak is a victim of the NASA culture, pressured to be a super achiever, put in a position where she waited 10 yrs to go into space, forced to try to compete with more and more hirees (sp?), etc. Is it possible that the astronaut program is partially to blame for her emotional meltdown?
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